Eyes show that stress reduces climate concern

An eye movement study suggests that
organisations campaigning to raise
 awareness of climate change should
 think carefully about where and
when they broadcast their messages.

People who are stressed pay less attention to climate change images and struggle to be receptive to messages about its impact, a study has found.

Researchers from Switzerland used eye tracking to measure how much attention a group of test subjects paid to images illustrating climate change. The goal of the study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, was to find out how everyday stress affects the attention that people pay to global warming, even when generally they  have a pro-environment stance.

“The results of our study suggest that individuals might be more receptive if they are in a relaxed and unpreoccupied state,” says Silja Sollberger, a researcher at the University of Zurich’s department of psychology.

Read the climate news network story - “Eyes show that stress reduces climate concern.”