Problem
Read the text:
In order to address climate change, widespread public support for changes in policy is needed, next to changes in individual behaviors and lifestyles. Both such public support as well as such (changes in) lifestyles appear to be intimately related with, and an expression of, people's worldviews. Worldviews can be defined as "the inescapable, overarching systems of meaning and meaning-making that inform how humans interpret, enact, and co-create reality" (Hedlund-de Witt, 2013b, p. 156). They are the fundamental 'lenses' through which humans see and filter reality, and they interface with people's perceptions of global issues like climate change in ways that are profound, persistent, and frequently overlooked. Worldviews not only tend to shape how individuals perceive particular issues and their potential solutions, they also tend to influence their willingness to partake in, or politically support, such solutions. Moreover, since worldviews are a fundamental part of individuals' identities, people may react defensively, or even with hostility, when their underlying assumptions and beliefs about reality are called into question-reacting as if they themselves were threatened (Brown et al., 2008).
One can see such psychological dynamics in the highly polarized and deeply entrenched societal debate on whether anthropogenic climate change is real, its severity, and what may be viable solutions to addressing the issue (e.g., consider the controversies around genetic modification of food, nuclear energy, and geo-engineering). These debates are not as rational, instrumental, or pragmatic as they may seem, but tend to reflect people's deeper emotional identifications and worldviews. Work of Kahan et al. (2012) showed that, contrary to popular belief, individuals with the highest degree of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity were not the most concerned about climate change. In fact, they were the ones among whom cultural polarization was greatest. The authors conclude that public divisions over climate change do not stem from public's incomprehension of science but from a conflict of interest that can be best explained by fundamental differences in worldview. Hence, rather than understanding these polarized debates as resulting from mere disagreements over the facts, they can be better understood as resulting from clashes over values, over worldviews (De Witt, 2015, Sarewitz, 2004). Researching the role and dynamics of worldviews is therefore crucial for understanding 'why we disagree about climate change', as Hulme (2009) argued.
Task
i. According to the text, why is it so important to understand peoples' worldviews in order to favour lifestyle changes?
ii. Can you think of an example in which a certain person or group's belief about reality is called into question and the person/group react as if himself/herself is being threatened?
iii. How is it that different worldviews can either his resistance towards accepting climate change or a deep concern regarding it? Compare different worldviews in your answer.