Social media use is associated with climate anxiety, climate doom, and support for radical action

Holly Jean Buck (), Prerna Shah and Janet Z. Yang
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Holly Jean Buck: University at Buffalo, Department of Environment and Sustainability
Prerna Shah: University of Georgia, Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems
Janet Z. Yang: University at Buffalo, Department of Communication

Climatic Change, 2025, vol. 178, issue 11, No 9, 17 pages

Abstract: Abstract Climate anxiety and climate distress are receiving growing attention as psychological conditions that deserve individual interventions, but potential social and structural drivers of these conditions warrant further study. Is there a relationship between climate anxiety and climate doom, and social media use? If so, what are the collective social and political implications of this? These questions matter for developing effective interventions in climate anxiety and climate doom on the individual, psychological level as well as the broader social level. If climate doom is related to support for authoritarian policies or extremist action, this presents an understudied risk for how we communicate about climate. We explore these questions in a survey of US adults (N = 1,400) and find that social media use correlates with increased climate distress and climate doom. We find that climate doom, but not climate distress, is associated with support for radical actions such as sabotage, threatening CEOs, and hacking fossil fuel cyberinfrastructure. Together, these results suggest a need for further research into both the role of social media in climate anxiety interventions and the broader social and political implications of climate doom.

Keywords: Social mediaMedia platforms; Climate anxiety; Climate distressClimate doom; Radical action (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-025-04048-6

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