THE VERDICT ON THIS ASSUMPTION: Mixed Bag
What does it mean to be in denial? For most people, being in denial means not accepting the truth about something. For the issue of climate change, it usually means not accepting the truth that climate change is happening or that humans are causing it. Recent polling suggests that roughly one fifth of Americans do not believe that climate change is happening, while one third believe that if it is happening it is mostly caused by natural changes in the environment 1 .
But research tells us that denial is best characterized as a coping mechanism adopted when people are faced with a particular threat (like climate change) in an atmosphere of uncertainty, mistrust, and potential loss of freedom 2 . With this in mind, it becomes easy to imagine how a fear-based climate campaign presented to an audience skeptical of the scientific conclusions around climate change could push that audience toward outright denial – particularly when the campaign message is being delivered by messengers not trusted by the audience members. For these reasons, caution should be used before adopting campaign messages focused on inducing fear (see Assumption 7).
Frames Associated with This Assumption:
On the other hand, the lack of certainty among the public presents a real opportunity for helping people come to terms with these issues in a more appropriate way. The most typical approaches used by advocates for addressing public uncertainty have been information campaigns and education programs. But it is often problematic to equate uncertainty with ignorance or simply a lack of information. Uncertainty may stem from competing information, mistrust and other factors that make it difficult for people to establish a clearer perspective, and emotions may cloud people’s ability to make sense of factual information. Alternative approaches are typically more successful, such as acknowledgement of the challenges and high stakes, emotionally supportive messaging, and humor to break through rational and defended positions.
By gaining a more nuanced picture of what people are thinking and feeling about the issue, programs can move beyond assumptions of ignorance and denial, recognize the various factors that shape the way people currently perceive the issue and develop efforts that seek to engage people rather than simply inform them or scare them into action. This requires more nuanced methodologies (insight) to discover what people are actually thinking and feeling. One central rule of thumb is what has been called "creating safety and containment" so people can feel more capable of engaging with the potentially distressing information. 1
- When climate campaigns assume that denial is fueling a lack of public participation, campaign content often becomes focused on information and persuasion, without adequately assessing what is fueling the perceived denial. This can be ineffective or even counterproductive (see Assumption 1) 4 .
- By engaging people in non-threatening ways, and by allowing people to assess the ways in which climate change has meaning and import in their own lives, climate campaigns can help people to engage on the issue and identify appropriate ways of addressing it that take into account personal experience and values.
