Cultural worldviews and climate change: A view from C hina

• Published in: Asian journal of social psychology Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 134 - 144
• Main Authors: Xue, Wen, Hine, Donald W., Marks, Anthony D. G., Phillips, Wendy J., Zhao, Shouying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-04-2016
• ISSN: 1367-2223; 1467-839X
• DOI: 10.1111/ajsp.12116

We investigated the association between cultural worldviews and climate change risk perceptions, support for climate friendly policies and climate change mitigation behaviours in a large
C
hinese sample. Items from
D
ake's cultural theory scales and
K
ahan's cultural cognition scale were presented to a
Q
ualtrics online panel consisting of 515
M
andarin‐speaking residents of
B
eijing. A series of factor analyses revealed that the combined item sets were best represented by four‐dimensions: hierarchism, individualism, egalitarianism and fatalism. Mediation analysis revealed that respondents with egalitarian and non‐fatalist worldviews perceived greater risk associated with climate change, which in turn predicted greater support for policies to manage climate change and increased mitigation behaviour. In addition, respondents who scored high on individualism were less likely to support climate change policies, but this effect was not mediated by risk perceptions. Overall, our results suggest cultural worldviews may influence policy support both directly and indirectly through risk perceptions.