Facing Climate Change in France and Germany: Different Emotions Predicting the Same Behavioral Intentions?

Collective emotions are considered relevant factors in predicting proecological behavior. However, the literature provides no insight into the role played by culture, despite the fact that emotions depend on specific appraisals, which are culturally grounded. As climate change is appraised as apolitical issue in France and as a moral issue in Germany, we hypothesize that different patterns of emotional responses will be observed in France and in Germany when facing climate change. One hundred forty-five French students and 92 German students completed a questionnaire. The main results indicate that participants in France report feeling high levels of self-focused emotions, and these emotions best predicted their intentions to act in favor of the environment. In Germany, other-focused emotions are mostly reported and best predicted proecological intentions. These results may have some important implications when planning measures to enhance proecological behaviors.