Climate Change Anxiety and Hope Both Predict Action: A Moderation Analysis

Category

Psychology & Environmental Studies > Behavioral & Sustainability Sciences > Consumer Behaviors

Received

October 31, 2023

Accepted

March 8, 2024

Published

April 1, 2025

Authors

Yuhan Bi, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Grace Hyde, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Orei Z. Odents, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Kai Okagawa, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Cassandra Hoffman, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Kimberly A. Barchard, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Authors

Yuhan Bi (YB)¹*, Grace Hyde (GH)¹, Orei Z. Odents (OZO)¹, Kai J. Okagawa (KJO)¹, Cassandra K. Hoffman (CKH)¹ and Kimberly A. Barchard, Ph.D. (KAB)¹

Author Affiliations

¹Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

Corresponding Author

*Yuhan Bi, biy1@unlv.nevada.edu

Corresponding Author ORCID iD

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1894-2576

DOI

https://doi.org/10.9741/2766-7227.1031

Author Contributions

CKH: Contributed to research design, collected data, edited manuscript, approved version to be published.

GH: Analyzed data, interpreted results, substantial contribution to drafting and editing manuscript, and approved version to be published.

KJO: Contributed to research design, collected and analyzed data, interpreted results, drafted and edited manuscript, and approved version to be published.

KAB: Oversaw project, substantially contributed to research design, collected and analyzed data, drafted and edited manuscript, and approved version to be published.

OZO: Contributed to research design, collected and analyzed data, interpreted results, drafted and edited manuscript, and approved version to be published.

YB: Analyzed data, interpreted results, substantial contribution to drafting and editing manuscript, and approved version to be published

Copyright

Articles in Spectra are freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly cited.

Data Availability Statement

The author of this article confirms that all included sources are fully available without restrictions.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that no conflicts of interest exist.

Ethical Considerations

This study was approved by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Institutional Review Board for the use of human subjects. The study involved only minimal risk and no adverse consequences were expected as a result of participation. Participants indicated their consent to the online study by selecting the radio button that said “I consent” at the bottom of the consent form.

Funding

The authors thank the McNair Summer Research Institute Program for the support of the first author during this project

Abstract

Climate change is associated with extreme weather events that have devastating effects on communities worldwide. These events disrupt ecosystems, damage infrastructure, and influence physical and mental well-being. Urgent action is needed. Prior studies demonstrate that people are more likely to take action if they feel anxious about climate change and if they feel hopeful they can make a difference. However, we hypothesized that anxiety and hope would interact: that anxiety would only predict action when people felt hopeful. Therefore, we used path analysis to determine if hope moderates the relation between anxiety and action.

In a cross-sectional design, 500 United States MTurk workers completed the Climate Change Hope Scale, Climate Change Anxiety Scale, and Climate Change Action Inventory. We found anxiety strongly predicted action, hope weakly predicted action, and being less than 30 years old weakly predicted action. However, hope did not moderate the relation between anxiety and action. Thus, people who are anxious about climate change engage in similar amounts of action regardless of their level of hope. Because anxiety and hope both had positive relations with action, future research could determine if hope and anxiety have causal impacts on action and look for ways of increasing urgency without dampening hope.

Keywords

Climate Change, Hope, Anxiety, Pro-environmental Behaviors, Moderation

Submission Type

Primary research article

Recommended Citation

Bi, Y., Hyde G., Odents, O.Z., Okagawa, K.J., Hoffman, C.K., & Barchard, K.A. (2025) Climate change anxiety and hope both predict action: A moderation analysis. Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal, 4(1), 1-15.https://doi.org/10.9741/2766-7227.1031