How climate change is changing us. A pilot study on whether negative and positive affect towards climate change promote environmental engagement or unhealthy behaviors

Abstract

One of the most urgent challenges affecting our world and its inhabitants is dealing with climate change. Community Psychology can have a significant role in encouraging environ-mentally responsible behaviors and a global sense of community. As several authors maintain to enhance eco-friendly behaviors it's pivotal to understand emotional reactions to climate change and build a planetary sense of community (Francescato, 2020). When emotions and feelings are unacknowledged or unprocessed this can contribute to inhibit climate change en-gagement (Hamilton, 2022). Our pilot research involved 25 high school students that partici-pated in a Psychological Environmental Intervention Program facilitated by environmental sci-entists and community psychologists expert in affective education. Through emotional reflex-ivity on climate change, we wanted to investigate which positive and negative emotions and feelings climate change evoked in students and how these emotions were related to negative unhealthy behaviors such as wanting to drink or smoke and positive prosocial behaviors such as participating to environmental movements.