Exploring the Moral Challenges of Confronting High-Carbon-Emitting Behavior: The Role of Emotions and Media Coverage

Susanne Stoll-Kleemann, Susanne Nicolai and Philipp Franikowski
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Susanne Stoll-Kleemann: Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Susanne Nicolai: Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Philipp Franikowski: Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, 17489 Greifswald, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-19

Abstract: In this article, we address the climate crisis as a moral issue and discuss the relevant moral and emotional processes and the role of the media underlying the motivations of individuals to behave in a less carbon-emitting manner. We provide theoretical insights from social psychology and emotion research and empirical data based on an online survey from Germany ( N = 979). In the theoretical part, we outline the role of emotions in influencing carbon-related behavior, with a particular focus on self-condemning (e.g., guilt or shame), self-praising (e.g., pride), or other-suffering emotions (e.g., empathy). We further summarize the reasons for the low influence of the media on carbon-related behavior compared to the COVID-19 pandemic. The empirical results confirm that participants reported other- suffering and self-condemning emotions in response to news content and rated their likelihood of personal behavior change as high when confronted with news about the climate crisis on a daily basis, as has been widely the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that the media is responsible for regularly reporting on the victims of the climate crisis in order to generalize self-condemning and other-suffering emotions into affective attitudes. Opinion leaders can function as role models for low-carbon behavior.

Keywords: moral motivation; media representation; (moral) emotions; moral disengagement; high-carbon behavior; pro-environmental behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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