Facts Don’t Change Our Minds — We Need a New Approach to Communicating About Climate Change
By: Tabitha Whiting
Tags: Communication, Psychology, Statistics, Climate Change, Environment

Ed Hawkins: annual global temperatures from 1850–2017

From percentages of emissions to net-zero targets, the way that we frame the climate emergency tends to centre around facts and statistics.

That isn’t terribly surprising given the substantial history of climate denial fuelled by oil and gas companies, and the politicians and business leaders who benefit financially from said companies. Climate scientists and environmentalists were fighting just to prove that climate change existed, and that led to placing climate science and fact-based discourse at the forefront.

Unbelievably, there are still climate deniers out there, but there is a general acceptance today that climate change is real and the researchers aren’t making it up. What remains a struggle is persuading people that a) climate change isn’t just a distant problem and it’s happening right now and b) that the problem is bad enough to be deemed an emergency and should be a political priority.

It’s much more comfortable to remain ignorant and keep assuming that climate change is a problem for future humans to deal with, or that it’s a natural occurrence in the earth’s climate that will fix itself eventually — and facts alone are not enough to change these people’s minds.

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.” — Leo Tolstoy

If anything, when we fill our conversations and reporting about climate change with facts and statistics, we only make people switch off and stop listening.

Don’t get me wrong — a cleverly placed, impactful statistic is still a great persuasive technique. But our brains have got so used to seeing dire statistics in the news every day that we find it hard to compute what that statistic really means for our lives and those of others.

Cowspiracy infographic of climate change facts, taken from: https://www.cowspiracy.com/infographic

Plus, research shows that having the knowledge and seeing the facts is not enough to spark change. This is partly because we feel helpless in the face of the statistics, unsure of how anything we do as individuals can help. It’s also been shown that when people personally see or feel the impacts of climate change they are more likely to behave in an environmental way, so much of it comes down to location and situation.

Another area which has a huge role to play in what we believe about climate change is what the people around us believe.

Humans are fundamentally social animals and we cherish our social ties and the tribes that we belong to. One of the ways we preserve our social communities is through shared views and beliefs. This can lead us to believe things or adopt viewpoints simply to conform with the group consensus and maintain those social connections. Going against the status quo and abandoning those beliefs for another point of view could put those connections at risk.

“People are embraced or condemned according to their beliefs, so one function of the mind may be to hold beliefs that bring the belief-holder the greatest number of allies, protectors, or disciples, rather than beliefs that are most likely to be true.” — Steven Pinker

It’s also much easier to accept new information and beliefs from people who we already know, like, trust, and agree with on other topic areas. We are much less likely to listen to and accept new ideas from people outside of our social circle, especially if they appear to have a very different point of view from ourselves.

It might seem like sharing knowledge, facts, and statistics is the obvious way to influence and persuade people when it comes to climate change and mitigation, but it’s clear that it isn’t that simple.

One thing to bear in mind from this last example is that you’re much more likely to be successful in starting climate change conversations with people who are already within your social circle, especially people who you have existing shared beliefs with but perhaps a different point of view when it comes to the climate emergency and what we should be doing about it.

One suggestion for a new approach — focusing on personal stories of climate change

There are many elements to explore in creating a more persuasive narrative around climate change. Two ideas I’ve explored previously are looking at solutions-focused hopefulness instead of despair, and focusing on the impacts on our local area rather than the seemingly abstract notion of climate change as a whole. Here’s a third to add to the mix.

A recent paper, published in the journal Communication Reports in August 2020, found that sharing personal and emotional stories from people who are already being impacted by the climate crisis had the power to engage even the most skeptical of audiences across the political spectrum. This engagement was found to have a positive effect on the participant's belief in climate change, as well as their perception of its risk to people and the planet.

Specifically, the researchers determined that these changes came about because of feelings of worry and compassion being activated in the participants whilst listening to the personal story of another. The more worry and compassion they felt, the more they changed their beliefs about climate change and its risks.

So what’s the learning here? Clearly, we need to be focusing our conversations about climate change around sharing personal stories about how climate change is affecting people and the ecosystems that we exist within. And the more emotive that story, the better.