Systems thinking as a pathway to global warming beliefs and attitudes through an ecological worldview

Abstract

Prior research has found that systems thinking, the tendency to perceive phenomena as interconnected and dynamic, is associated with a general proenvironmental orientation. However, less is known about its relationship with public understanding of climate change and/or whether this relationship varies across people with different political views. Because climate change is a highly politicized issue, it is also important to understand the extent to which systems thinking can foster acceptance of climate science across political lines. Using an online sample of US adults (n = 1,058), we tested the degree to which systems thinking predicts global warming beliefs and attitudes (e.g., believing that global warming is happening, that it is human-caused, etc.), independent of an ecological worldview (i.e., the New Ecological Paradigm). We found that although systems thinking is positively related to global warming beliefs and attitudes, the relationships are almost fully explained by an ecological worldview. Indirect effects of systems thinking are consistently strong across political ideologies and party affiliations, although slightly stronger for conservatives and Republicans than for liberals and Democrats, respectively. We did not find evidence of the converse: Systems thinking does not seem to mediate the relationship between an ecological worldview and global warming beliefs and attitudes. Together, these findings suggest that systems thinking may support the adoption of global warming beliefs and attitudes indirectly by helping to develop an ecological ethic that people should take care of and not abuse the environment.

Keywords: New Ecological Paradigm; attitudes; climate change; climate change communication; systems thinking.

Fig. 1.

Systems thinking predicts overall global warming beliefs and attitudes through an ecological worldview across political groups. Path coefficients refer to unstandardized b-values from separate mediation model tests with each political group: conservatives (n = 269), liberals (n = 316), Republicans (n = 235), and Democrats (n = 343). Coefficients in parentheses refer to direct effects of systems thinking on beliefs and attitudes without ecological worldview in the model. ***P < 0.001; **P < 0.01; *P < 0.05.