부산대학교 도서관

Whether the negative impact of climate change can be effectively mitigated depends heavily on degree of individual engagement in environmental-friendly behaviors. This study draws on the dual pathway model, which emphasizes the role of negative emotions and different forms of efficacy, to investigate how to facilitate mitigation actions. Through an experiment involving 211 people recruited at a large public university in northern Taiwan, this study found both emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping to be possible pathways leading to mitigation actions related to climate change. Regarding emotion-focused coping, the findings indicate that framing climate change as a local issue increased its perceived relevance, which, in turn, stimulated negative emotions and behavioral intentions. On the other hand, providing action cues in messages increased knowledge of action strategies, and so triggered different forms of efficacy and behavioral intentions, a case of problem-focused coping. The results also indicate that negative emotions interacted with various forms of efficacy to shape intentions. The effect of negative emotions was stronger for people low in response efficacy and collective efficacy, suggesting the role of efficacy may not be monotonous. Implications of these findings are discussed.