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Are COVID-19 and climate change competing crises? New evidence on the finite pool of worry and risk-as-feelings hypotheses

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Abstract

Recent studies have found mixed evidence on whether or not worrying about COVID-19 would lead to a decrease in climate change engagement. To gain more clarity in this line of research, we revisited the finite pool of worry and risk-as-feelings hypotheses by exploring whether and how COVID-19 health beliefs are associated with climate change engagement. Data were collected in February 2021 from a cross-sectional online survey of US adults (N = 434). Findings from structural equation modeling demonstrate that COVID-19 health beliefs were positively associated with fear of COVID-19, which further mediated the effect of COVID-19 health belief factors on climate change responses. While perceived severity of COVID-19 was positively associated with climate change concern, perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 was negatively associated with climate change concern. In summary, our study clarifies that a finite pool of worry hypothesis may be supported when the susceptibility dimension of risk is examined, and when evaluating the severity dimension, an opposite risk-as-feelings hypothesis may be supported.

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The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors received financial support for the research from The Hitchcock Project for Visualizing Science and the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada Reno.

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  1. Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, RSJ 204, Mail Stop 310, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Ran Duan & Laura Crosswell

  2. Department of Statistics & Data Science, Yale University, 24 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Christian Bombara

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Duan, R., Bombara, C. & Crosswell, L. Are COVID-19 and climate change competing crises? New evidence on the finite pool of worry and risk-as-feelings hypotheses. J Environ Stud Sci 14, 328–341 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-023-00887-w

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