Emotional response to climate change influences whether we seek or avoid further information

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2013/05/025.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Emotional response to climate change influences whether we seek or avoid further information[/font]
[font size=4]People with negative feelings toward climate change seek out more information, study finds[/font]

By: Pat Donovan
Release Date: May 13, 2013

[font size=3]BUFFALO, N.Y. – Sixty-two percent of Americans now say they believe that global warming is happening, but 46 percent say they are “very sure” or “extremely sure” that it is not. Only 49 percent know why it is occurring, and about as many say they’re not worried about it, according to the April report of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

Because information about climate change is ubiquitous in the media, researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Texas, Austin, looked at why many Americans know so little about its causes and why many are not interested in finding out more.

The study, “What, Me Worry? The Role of Affect in Information Seeking and Avoidance” was conducted by Z. Janet Yang, PhD, assistant professor of communication at UB, and Lee Ann Kahlor, PhD, associate professor of public relations and advertising at UT Austin. It was published in the April 2013 issue of the journal Science Communication and is available at http://scx.sagepub.com/content/35/2/189

Yang says, “Our key variables of interest were ‘information seeking’ and ‘information avoidance.’

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[grntuscarora]

1. "Climate change is ubiquitous in the media"?

I don't think that climate change coverage is "ubiquitous" in the media. The msm, at any rate, seems to have a serious avoidance problem of their own, imo.

But for me, climate change is like a train wreck that I can't take my eyes off of. My family, while agreeing that climate change is occurring, avoids discussing the subject. Anecdotal evidence of the study's findings, perhaps.