In the past decade, the world has careened through a series of panic-inducing climate records. Seas are rising and acidifying. From the peaks of the Himalayas to the permafrost of Siberia, ice is thawing. And deforestation continues to tear down swathes of oxygen-gifting plant life.
This year, teenagers organised a series of strikes to protest government inaction on the environment across the world. But there’s evidence that boomers are less convinced of the dangers of the rapidly unfolding climate crisis.
Boomers. The climate crisis. Christmas. Too much wine. It’s a potent mix. Once you’ve got Brexit out the way and conversation at the dinner table turns to our planet’s wanton destruction, it will pay to keep a cool, rational head. Here’s how to explain the climate crisis to more aged relatives in a way that maximises the likelihood of persuasion and minimises the likelihood of a festive blow-out. Spoiler: Do not ‘OK, boomer’ them.
Know your audience
The fact that it’s your family should put you at an advantage compared to attempting the same conversation with a stranger on the street. You know the person you’re speaking to, and therefore you can personalise your pitch.
“If you know that you're talking to somebody who isn’t that concerned about climate change, but you know that they care a lot about people – they volunteer or they do charity work – you might come up with a narrative about climate change’s impact on people,” says Susan Clayton, professor of psychology and environmental studies at the College of Wooster in Ohio. “If you think that this moral dimension of harm is important to someone you know, that's a frame that you could use,” says Clayton.
Listen
It might be tempting to rattle through your talking points, but a rambling monologue does not an effective argument make. “You need to actually listen to what people say and not just look for a gap to make your case,” says Matthew Adams, principal lecturer at the School of Applied Social Science at Brighton University. “Authentic relationships are the basis for open and genuine conversation.” And listening has an added bonus, too. “If you’re doing that, you can tune into people’s resistance and ambivalence.”
Don’t lecture people
But, really, how many people turned vegan after being told they were a disgusting and heartless murderer who was wrecking the planet? Exactly. “It's important not to get hung up on individual behaviour changes – what people are doing or not doing, or aspects of people's lifestyle,” says Adams. “We don’t respond to things rationally – we have defences in place. Instead, it’s about creating an environment where people don’t feel threatened.”
Aside from not being the most effective means of tackling climate change (which requires huge structural changes beyond individual lifestyle tweaks), it might make people feel cornered. And haranguing is a surefire way to kill the Christmas spirit. “You definitely don’t want to say anything that implies they’re stupid for not believing something,” says Clayton.
Appear calm
The world could be on the precipice of apocalypse – but you might end up sabotaging yourself if you appear too agitated about it while passing the gravy boat. “Try to deal with your own stress beforehand,” says Adams. “People are put off if you appear to be approaching a subject with a heightened sense of emotional anxiety.”
You also need to recognise that this topic can be stressful for other people to think about. “It affects so much of our lives that it does potentially provoke an unconscious anxiety response,” says Adams. While you may be unsettled by your relative’s seemingly laissez-faire approach to the climate crisis, it might be that they’ve chosen not to think about it precisely because it scares them.
Affirm their worldview
But whether they agree with your points or not, there are tricky psychological reasons why someone might not be willing to let themselves be persuaded. “People are trying to defend their identity and self-esteem through what they believe,” says Clayton. “If agreeing with you represents a personal loss, then they're not going to be motivated to let you win.”
To counter this, you can use a sneaky technique called affirmation. “Basically, affirm the person’s worldview before you start a conversation,” says Sander van der Linden, assistant professor in social psychology at the University of Cambridge. “Then people are more receptive to integrating new information into that worldview because you’ve validated it.”
For example, if your grandad is a conspiracy theorist who believes that climate change is a hoax, at the beginning of the conversation you could say that although it’s true that some conspiracy theories have turned out to be real, the one about climate change won’t.
Use emotions – but the right ones
“Generally, fact based approaches are not as effective as emotional appeals,” says van der Linden. But knowing how to use emotion effectively is a skilful undertaking. “One way is evoking emotional responses about threats to things they value,” says Clayton. She uses the example of relatives who like visiting seaside towns. “You could say, ‘It makes me sad to think that this beloved place we used to visit together might be transformed’,” she suggests.
Making it relevant will make it resonate just that little bit more. If you’re sitting down for Christmas dinner and it’s weirdly warm outside, maybe mention how much you miss the white Christmases of yesteryear.
Be careful with fear
What role fear can play in persuasion is an ongoing debate in the field of social psychology. But if your relatives are obstinate non-climate converts or outright deniers, trying to shock them with scary climate stats probably isn’t the way forward.
“If you try and scare people too much that might just encourage them to reject your belief even more,” says Clayton. Scientific studies tell us that fear is most effective if you provide people with a way to minimise the threat they’re scared about. For example, warning people about the dangers of certain types of cancer can be effective because there’s a simple solution available – getting checkups. If there’s no easy fix – like with climate change – your auntie might just crank up the volume on Doctor Who.
Look out for deflection
But if your relative does engage with you, what defences might they throw up? One of the most common counter arguments is blame-shifting. “Something you hear a lot is, ‘It’s China that’s the problem’,” says Adams. “It’s one of the most irrational responses – projecting the problem onto someone else.”
There’s also an optimism bias at play. “People believe what they want to believe. Or at least try to believe what they want to believe,” says Clayton. She draws a comparison between people who don’t go to the doctor until it’s too late because they want to believe they’re healthy. “Then some of them find out that they have a chronic disease.”
Another common deflection technique is distancing oneself from the problem – both geographically and temporally. “They’ll think that it’s a problem, but that it’s not going to affect us for a very long time,” says Adams. If you’re serious about changing hearts and minds, you should prepare comebacks to each of these points.
Don’t try to force a 180-degree turn
“You can move them a little bit, but you can't really move them a lot,” says van der Linden. “Don’t try to bring about a total transformation.” In fact, pushing too hard can be counterproductive, because people just dig their proverbial heels in.
But this doesn’t mean all hope is lost – just because someone doesn’t appear to have been persuaded, if you lodge a thought (Inception-like) upstream in their subconscious, it might eventually leach down into how they view the world.
Sander’s team has done a lot of research on what they call the gateway model. “What we see over time is that there's a downstream consequence that affects your personal view,” he says. “Once you've accepted that another group believes something, that slowly leads people to change the personal view that they have. Nobody's immune to evidence.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
