Personality traits and climate change denial, concern, and proactivity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Climate Change is a global issue which touches the lives of all human beings, each of whom have their own unique outlooks and motivations. Hence, the high degree of complexity which emerges from the involvement of such a large number of people might be better understood through the lenses of their individual differences. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis following PRISMA guidelines. We searched keywords on Web of ScienceTM and Scopus (R), and included peer-reviewed articles which quantitatively examined correlations between personality and climate attitudes. After screening, 74 papers were included in our review. From these articles, k = 100 samples were extracted and included in meta-analysis models. Our results show that Climate Change Denial is positively correlated with Social Dominance Orientation (r = 0.39) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (r = 0.42), and negatively with Openness (r = -0.14), Conscientiousness (r = -0.05), Agreeableness (r = -0.11), Consideration of Future Consequences (r = -0.38), and Actively Open-Minded Thinking (r = -0.38). Concern for Climate Change correlates with Openness (r = 0.10), Neuroticism (r = 0.12), Consideration of Future Consequences (r = 0.34), and negatively with Social Dominance Orientation (r = -0.36) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (r = -0.22). Finally, Proactivity towards Climate Change correlates positively with Openness (r = 0.17), Extraversion (r = 0.09), Agreeableness (r = 0.05), Neuroticism (r = 0.10), Consideration of Future Consequences (r = 0.39), and negatively with Social Dominance Orientation (r = -0.25) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (r = -0.31). Moderation analysis shows geographical variations in the Social Dominance Orientation and Climate Denial relationship. We conclude that some personality traits - such as Openness - transversally affect climate change attitudes. Moreover, meta-analytic data suggest that the personality involvement in Climate Change may be dependent on the socio-political context of different countries. Future research, policies, and communication campaigns should take these peculiarities into account.