When trust is good and worrying is even better. Trust in science and climate change specific worries are linked to policy support and pro-environmental behaviours

Effective responses to climate change require coordinated individual and systemic action, yet the interplay between trust in science and emotional engagement in shaping these forms of participation remains poorly understood. In a preregistered study of 971 Austrians, we examined the roles of trust in science, climate-change-specific worries, and generalized worries in relation to policy support and pro-environmental behaviours. Trust in science was strongly associated with both outcomes (policy support: b = 0.195; behaviours: b = 0.089, p < 0.001), and climate-change-specific worries—but not generalized worries—mediated this association. While generalized worries were negatively associated with both policy support and pro-environmental actions (b = −0.082 to −0.100, p ≤ 0.003), climate-change-specific worries showed a linear and accelerating relationship with pro-environmental behaviours (quadratic b = 0.122, p < 0.001). Exploratory analyses indicated that lower perceived coping ability was linked to greater policy support (b = 0.104, p = 0.003), whereas higher perceived coping was associated with more frequent pro-environmental behaviours (b = −0.133, p < 0.001). These findings extend understanding of how emotional and cognitive factors influence climate responses, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between specific and generalized worries and the role of appraisal in shaping climate action.