A ameaza do cambio climático: eco-ansiedade e eficacia colectiva

Abstract

Apelar ao medo nas comunicacións sobre o cambio climático nos medios é unha cuestión amplamente debatida. Varios autores propoñen a necesidade de incluír información de carácter remedial, posterior ás mensaxes ameazantes, para paliar os posibles danos provocados pola ameaza. Entre estes danos, atópase a eco-ansiedade. Neste traballo realizouse un experimento con grupos aleatorios, divididos en tres grupos, que recibiron diferentes tipos de textos sobre o medio ambiente, con diferentes graos de ameaza e con ou sen solucións. Avaliouse a eficacia colectiva, as emocións negativas relacionadas co cambio climático e a eco-ansiedade en cada un deles. Esperábase que o grupo exposto a textos ameazantes amosara menor percepción de eficacia e maior eco-ansiedade que o grupo exposto a mensaxes con solucións, mentres que o grupo control tería niveis máis baixos nestas variables que os grupos experimentais. Realizáronse análises descritivas, de correlación e de varianza. Os resultados amosaron o impacto dos textos ameazantes, pero non se atoparon diferenzas significativas entre os tres grupos nas variables estudadas. Logo, analizouse ás persoas que presentaban altos e baixos niveis de eco-ansiedade, atopándose relacións significativas entre as emocións negativas e a presenza de eco-ansiedade, pero non se demostrou unha relación entre esta última e a percepción de eficacia colectiva. Os resultados suxiren a dificultade de influír na eco-ansiedade cunha soa exposición, resaltando a estabilidade deste construto; e a necesidade de seguir investigando a relación entre eficacia colectiva e a eco-ansiedade

Appealing to fear in media comunications on climate change is a widely controversial issue. Several authors propose the need to include information of a remedial nature, subsequent to the threatening messages, in order to mitigate the possible damage caused by the threat. Among these damages, eco-anxiety is one of them. In this work, an experiment was carried out with random groups, divided into three groups, which received different types of texts about the environment, with different levels of threat and with or without solutions. The collective efficacy, negative emotions related to climate change and eco-anxiety were evaluated in each group. It was expected that the group exposed to threatening texts would have a lower perception of efficacy and greater eco-anxiety than the group exposed to messages with solutions, while the control group would have lower levels of these variables than the experimental groups. Descriptive, correlation and variance analyses were carried out. The results showed the impact of the threatening texts, but no significant differences were found between the three groups in the variables studied. The analysis of people with high and low levels of eco-anxiety showed significant correlations between negative emotions and the presence of eco-anxiety, but no relationship was found between the latter and the perception of collective efficacy. The results suggest the difficulty of influencing eco-anxiety with a single exposure, highlighting the stability of this construct; and the need to continue investigating the relationship between collective efficacy and eco-anxiety