Emotions matter: Lessons learned about community members’ climate attitudes from an educational climate change museum exhibit

Climate views vary widely and can inform engagement in pro-environmental actions. An underexplored construct that may formulate and maintain climate attitudes and beliefs is emotional responses. The current study examines the relationship between climate views and emotional responses to climate change education. In order to test this question, we utilized the real-world setting of a climate change exhibit at a natural history museum that provided visitors with a scientifically accurate account of the climate crisis. The results suggested that those who were more concerned about and engaged with the climate crisis had negative responses to the section of the exhibit on the realities of the climate crisis, as well as positive responses to the section of the exhibit imagining possibilities for the future through collective action. Findings show that strong climate emotions are an important correlation of climate attitudes and beliefs, highlighting the integral role of emotions in climate education.