Browsing by Author "Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo"
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Item Open Access Attribution matters: revisiting the link between extreme weather experience and climate change mitigation responses(Elsevier, 2018-11-23) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Demski, Christina; Capstick, Stuart; Sposato, Robert GennaroThe literature suggests that extreme weather experiences have potential to increase climate change engagement by influencing the way people perceive the proximity and implications of climate change. Yet, limited attention has been directed at investigating how individual differences in the subjective interpretation of extreme weather events as indications of climate change moderate the link between extreme weather experiences and climate change attitudes. This article contends that subjective attribution of extreme weather events to climate change is a necessary condition for extreme weather experiences to be translated into climate change mitigation responses, and that subjective attribution of extreme weather to climate change is influenced by the psychological and social contexts in which individuals appraise their experiences with extreme weather. Using survey data gathered in the aftermath of severe flooding across the UK in winter 2013/2014, personal experience of this flooding event is shown to only directly predict perceived threat from climate change, and indirectly predict climate change mitigation responses, among individuals who subjectively attributed the floods to climate change. Additionally, subjective attribution of the floods to climate change is significantly predicted by pre-existing climate change belief, political affiliation and perceived normative cues. Attempts to harness extreme weather experiences as a route to engaging the public must be attentive to the heterogeneity of opinion on the attributability of extreme weather events to climate change.Item Open Access Context-appropriate environmental attitude measurement in Nigeria using the Campbell paradigm(Springer, 2018-10-25) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Henn, Laura; Tausch, NicoleThe need to tailor environmental policies in Africa with an understanding of public attitudes is commonly acknowledged, but efforts to generate such understanding are generally constrained by a lack of reliable context-appropriate measures. Attempts to ‘borrow’ Western measures in African research are typically undermined by the cross-cultural inequivalence of constructs and theoretical models. Consequently, we tested the potential of the Campbell paradigm—an approach that enables context-specific adaptation of attitude measurement, among a Nigerian sample (N = 543). Data were gathered with a questionnaire survey. Our findings show that a context-appropriate environmental attitude measure can be obtained by assessing the behaviours and intention statements Nigerians execute in response to environmental issues. On average, pro-environmental attitude levels among our sample were characterized by professed intentions to perform the most difficult behaviours and actual engagement in the least difficult behaviours. The environmental attitude measure derived using the Campbell paradigm is positively related to other conventional attitude indicators including the perceived threat of climate change, concern, efficacy beliefs and acceptance of responsibility for mitigation. We conclude that the Campbell paradigm offers a viable avenue to proceed beyond simple assessments of professed environmental attitudes to more accurate evaluations of Africans’ disposition to strive for the achievement of ecological goals in difficult circumstances.Item Open Access Cross-cultural evidence for spatial bias in beliefs about the severity of environmental problems(Sage, 2014-10-04) Schultz, Paul Wesley; Milfont, Taciano Lemos; Chance, Randie; Tronu, Giuseppe; Luis, Silva; Ando, Kaori; Rasool, Faiz; Roose, Pamela Linera; Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Castro, Juana; Gouveia, Valdiney V.Prior research has shown a tendency for environmental problems to be rated as more severe at the global level than at the local level. The present article reports reanalyses of a large cross-cultural data set (Study 1: k = 22, N = 3,277) and new cross-cultural data (Study 2: k = 8, N = 1,131) examining the prevalence of this spatial bias in the rated severity of environmental problems along with analyses of individual and country-level predictors of this bias. Results from multilevel modeling analyses showed that spatial bias was greater for happier and younger individuals and for those from smaller communities. We interpret these results as evidence for self-serving and “place-serving” biases in which the bias tempers the severity of environmental problems in one’s local area. Considering the large cross-cultural evidence, we argue that spatial bias is a plausible candidate of a psychological universal identified by research in environmental psychology.Item Open Access Exposure to the IPCC special report on 1.5°C global warming is linked to perceived threat and increased concern about climate change(Springer, 2019-11-22) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Doran, Rouven; Bohm, GiselaThis article investigates the influence of exposure to the IPCC special report on 1.5°C global warming on climate change attitudes. Among a nationally representative sample of the Norwegian public, we found that exposure to the report is associated with greater perceived threat from climate change and increased climate change concern. However, this association was modestly moderated by political orientation. Exposure to the report had a weaker association with perceived threat and climate change concern among politically right-leaning individuals, compared with their left-leaning counterparts, and there was no association between exposure to the report and climate change concern among individuals who self-identified as being on the far-right end of the political spectrum. We conclude that, despite the commonly observed tendency for biased assimilation of climate change information and polarisation of opinion among the public, scientific communication regarding climate risks may still have a viable role to play in promoting climate change engagement and action.Item Open Access Individual and local flooding experiences are differentially associated with subjective attribution and climate change concern(Springer, 2020-07-16) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Doran, Rouven; Boehm, GiselaWhile several studies show an association between flooding experience and climate change engagement, a few show no evidence of such a link. Here, we explore the potential that this inconsistency relates to the measurement of flooding experience in terms of individual versus local experience, and the subsumption of multiple distinct constructs within composite indicators of climate change engagement. Using national survey data from Norway, we show that individual and local flooding experiences differentially predict subjective attribution and climate change concern. People with individual flooding experience reported significantly greater climate change concern than those with local, or no, flooding experience. Subjective attribution of flooding to climate change did not differ significantly between people with individual versus local flooding experience, except among those with a right-wing political orientation where individual experience was associated with greater subjective attribution. Our findings highlight the need for careful operationalisation of flooding experience and climate change engagement in subsequent research.Item Open Access Knowledge, morality and threat perception: A juxtaposition of internal influences on climate change-related behavioral intentions in Nigeria(Taylor and Francis, 2012-10-01) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Arnold, KateAs part of efforts to mitigate the consequences of environmental degradation resulting from negative human activities, the focus of social–scientific studies on human–nature relationships has expanded in the last two decades to include research on the behavioral dimensions of global climate change. Current research findings make it apparent that sociopsychological influences play a highly significant role in the cognitive processes that underlie environmental behaviors. Factors such as awareness, moral responsibility, and threat perception have been identified as some of the most important influences on positive climate change–related behaviors in many Western societies. However, to date very few studies of this nature have been conducted in African contexts. Hence, in this study, we attempt to help fill this gap by comparing the effects of three models of behavior: (1) awareness, (2) moral responsibility, and (3) threat perception, as frameworks of climate change–related behavior among a sample of Nigerian urbanites. Analysis of our data, generated by a questionnaire survey, revealed that the threat perception model explained the largest amount of variance in behavioral intentions (R2 = 0.23). The differences in the performances of the models are discussed together with the implications of our findings for climate change advocacy efforts in the region.Item Open Access The moderating role of political affiliation in the link between flooding experience and preparedness to reduce energy use.(Springer, 2017-10-18) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Liu, Yue; Tausch, NicoleResearch suggests that highlighting links between local weather events and climate change can help promote climate change engagement. Yet, the evidence for the relationship between weather experiences and climate change attitudes has been mixed. Here we argue that obtaining an accurate assessment of the contribution of weather experiences to climate change engagement necessitates explicit evaluation of factors such as values and identities that influence the way weather experiences are interpreted and integrated into climate change attitudes. We re-analysed data from a prior study in which reported flood experience was found to be indirectly linked to preparedness to reduce energy use among UK residents. Overall, flood experience was positively linked with perceived vulnerability and negatively linked with uncertainty about climate change, but the purported indirect relationship between flood experience and preparedness to reduce energy use was observed among left and not right-leaning voters. We concluded that assessing interactions between extreme weather experiences and political affiliation lends valuable nuance to evaluation of the effects of such experiences on climate change perceptions and attitudes. Highlighting links between climate change and flooding may have varying levels of influence on climate change engagement depending on individuals’ political affiliation.Item Open Access The resilience paradox: flooding experience, coping and climate change mitigation intentions(Taylor and Francis, 2018-12-24) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Bohm, Gisela; Capstick, Stuart; Demski, Christina; Spence, Alexa; Tausch, NicoleClimate change is projected to increase the frequency, intensity and unpredictability of extreme weather events across the globe and these events are likely to have significant mental health implications. The mental health literature broadly characterises negative emotional reactions to extreme weather experiences as undesirable impacts on wellbeing. Yet, other research in psychology suggests that negative emotional responses to extreme weather are an important motivation for personal action on climate change. This article addresses the intersection of mental health and functional perspectives on negative emotions, with a specific focus on the potential that reduced negative emotional responses to extreme weather may also translate to diminished motivation to undertake climate change mitigation actions – which we term the ‘resilience paradox’. Using survey data gathered in the aftermath of severe flooding across the UK in winter 2013/2014, we present new evidence indicating that self-appraised coping ability moderates the link between flooding experience and negative emotions and thereby attenuates the indirect link between flooding experience and climate change mitigation intentions. We conclude that support for flood victims should extend beyond addressing emotional, physical and financial stresses to include acknowledgement of the involvement of climate change and communication of the need for action to combat future climate risks.Item Open Access Socio-demographic differences in environmental concern and willingness to pay for addressing global climate change in Pakistan(Brill, 2015-01-01) Ogunbode, Charles Adedayo; Rasool, FaizPrevious research indicates that socio-demographic attributes are important predictors of environmental concern. However, this research mainly focused on Western societies, with minimal representation of non-Western contexts. In this article, we argue that a stronger representation of non-Western societies is necessary for a more global understanding of pro-environmentalism. On this basis, we explored socio-demographic differences in environmental concern and willingness to pay for addressing climate change in Pakistan. We aimed to assess demographic trends in public perceptions of environmental problems in the Pakistan, and their level of convergence with Westernderived theories of the social bases of environmental concern. Although our findings are largely congruent with trends previously observed in Western contexts, we found some divergent demographic patterns in environmental concern among Pakistanis that are likely the result of a number of contextual influences that prevail in Pakistan and other similar developing countries.