Compassion for climate change victims and support for mitigation policy

The lack of broad public support for climate change mitigation policy hampers efforts to adopt timely approaches to the climate crisis. Echoing prior calls for examining the role of emotions in climate change communication, this study explores effects of compassion on support for government actions to address climate change. A diverse sample of U.S. participants (N = 400) was randomly assigned to different message treatments as part of a 2 (compassion: high or low) × 2 (climate change cue: present or absent) between-subjects factorial design. Results showed that the high-compassion condition elicited greater self-reported compassion and stronger belief that a climate-related humanitarian crisis was caused by human activities, both of which, in turn, mediated increased policy support-particularly among political conservatives and moderates (compared to liberals). Overall, these findings add to the nascent literature examining emotions in climate change public opinion and help inform compassion appeals in climate change communication.