Few would argue that romantic partners have the potential to shift each other’s beliefs and behaviors, but what about their views on climate change specifically? Up until now there’s been little analysis of the dynamics of climate change conversations in romantic relationships and how the beliefs of one partner can influence the other.
A team of researchers led by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication at the Yale School of the Environment explored this concept and found that there’s potential for partners to influence each other through conversations on climate change.
“We wanted to see if there’s potential for couples to increase support for pro-climate policies and behaviors through more conversations about climate change,” says Matthew Goldberg, associate research scientist at YPCCC and lead author on the study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
The researchers surveyed 758 romantic couples to determine the extent to which they understood each other’s ideas on climate change and the degree to which partners were aligned on them.
Read more at Yale School of the Environment
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