Climate change threats and affective polarization: Exploring the role of negative emotional reactions

Climate change mitigation requires collective efforts, but the fact that the climate issue has become highly polarized may thwart such endeavors. In this article, we examine how negative emotions in response to climate change threats are associated with affective polarization—the tendency to view those from opposing political groups with hostility and bias, and to view those from one's own group more favorably. We hypothesize that anger in response to climate change threats is associated with higher affective polarization, whereas fear responses are associated with lower affective polarization. First, we conducted a survey in Sweden (N = 1575) and found that participants who perceived climate change as threatening were lower on affective polarization. Second, we conducted a survey experiment in Sweden (N = 1110), where participants were presented with content describing climate change threats or a control condition. Participants exposed to climate change threats reacted with increased anger and fear as expected. Fear was associated with lower affective polarization, while anger was not significantly associated with affective polarization. We conclude that fear in response to climate change threats may, under certain circumstances, depolarize the electorate.