Supplementary file 1_Values interact with psychological distance and eco-anxiety to promote climate engagement: insights from two experimental studies.docx

The effectiveness of encouraging engagement with climate change through reducing its psychological distance has been increasingly called into question. Through two experimental studies, we examine how value orientation interacts with proximal information and eco-anxiety to affect climate engagement. Study 1 (N = 472) tested how exposure to spatially proximal versus distal messaging conditions affected psychological distance to climate change and subsequent climate risk perception, policy support, and mitigation intention. We found that spatial messaging conditions did not significantly affect psychological distance or climate engagement. However, both self-transcendence values and proximal distance predicted more climate engagement. Additionally, the positive association between proximal psychological distance and pro-environmental behavioral intention was stronger among individuals with higher self-transcendence and weaker among individuals with higher self-enhancement. Study 2 (N = 414) examined whether a self-reflective writing task to invoke eco-anxiety is more effective than proximal messaging at increasing climate engagement. We found that the writing task was more effective than proximal messaging at eliciting eco-anxiety, which positively predicted risk perception, policy support, information sharing intention, and effortful mitigation behavior. Path analysis reveals that stronger self-transcendence values not only directly predicted more climate engagement but also predicted higher eco-anxiety in response to interventions. Collectively, our results suggest that elicitation of eco-anxiety could be a superior strategy for increasing engagement with climate change than exposure to information about its local impacts.

通过降低心理距离（psychological distance）以推动公众参与气候变化议题的相关举措，其有效性正日益受到质疑。本研究依托两项实验，探究价值取向如何与近端信息（proximal information）、生态焦虑（eco-anxiety）交互作用，进而影响气候变化参与度。
实验一（N=472）旨在检验空间近端与远端信息接触条件对气候变化心理距离、后续气候风险感知、政策支持意愿以及减排意向的影响。研究发现，空间信息传播条件并未显著影响心理距离或气候变化参与度。然而，自我超越价值观（self-transcendence values）与近端心理距离均能正向预测更高的气候变化参与度。此外，近端心理距离与亲环境行为意向（pro-environmental behavioral intention）之间的正向关联，在自我超越水平更高的群体中更为显著，而在自我提升价值观（self-enhancement values）水平更高的群体中则相对较弱。
实验二（N=414）则考察了旨在唤起生态焦虑的自我反思书写任务，在提升气候变化参与度方面是否比近端信息传播更为有效。研究表明，该书写任务在唤起生态焦虑方面比近端信息传播更为有效，而生态焦虑能正向预测风险感知、政策支持意愿、信息分享意向以及主动减排行为。路径分析（path analysis）结果显示，更强的自我超越价值观不仅能直接正向预测更高的气候变化参与度，还能在干预过程中预测更高水平的生态焦虑。综合来看，本研究结果表明，相较于接触气候变化的本地影响相关信息，唤起生态焦虑或许是提升公众气候变化参与度的更优策略。