Margaret Klein Salamon: On the psychology of influencing change and facing the climate emergency
Margaret Klein Salamon (@ClimatePsych) is a clinical psychologist turned climate warrior, founder of The Climate Mobilization (Twitter: @MobilizeClimate; Instagram: @climatemobilization), and author of Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth.
In this podcast episode, Margaret sheds light on some of the psychological phenomena that explain why our public response to climate change hasn't reflected the urgency that it warrants; why the environmental movement's fear of making people feel fear when it comes to telling the truth about our ecological breakdown has been misguided; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Margaret and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by Yarrow by Kim Anderson
“This is probably the single most important psychological insight: Humans evaluate risk socially, not rationally. Is there a danger, is there a risk? We look to each other [to determine that].”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological regeneration, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app, and support Green Dreamer on Patreon so we can keep the show going and accessible to a wider audience!
On how humans evaluate risk:
"This is probably the single most important psychological insight: Humans evaluate risk socially, not rationally.
Is there a danger, is there a risk? We look to each other [to determine that]."
On the psychological phenomenon behind our normalized climate inaction:
"In the psychology lab, if the room is slowly filling up with smoke but everyone is sitting there acting normal, not seeing the smoke, participants will just sit there as the room fills up with smoke, because that's how we evaluate risk.
With the climate, people are looking around and saying, ‘I read that really intense article, but my brother is acting normal, my cousin's acting normal, my neighbor's acting normal, my friends are acting normal and planning their lives, their careers, their families. And my mom's planning for retirement, this person's planning their vacation for after Coronavirus, and all this normal stuff.’
So the insight here is that merely by living your life as normal and not joining the climate emergency movement and not talking about climate change, you are actually contributing to this phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance. Living your life as normal is sending the signal to everyone in your life that everything is fine—and things are not fine.
We need to talk about it with each other—starting with our friends and family, the people we can influence the most."
On the misunderstanding the climate movement has had around the role of fear:
"There is a widespread fear of fear within the climate movement.
‘Fear doesn't work as a motivator. Don't scare people—they can't handle it! Keep it positive.’ This is like common knowledge.
I hate it. Fear is a self-protective mechanism. It is literally the way humans and other animals translate the perception of risk into self-protective action. If our ancestors didn't feel fear, then they wouldn't have escaped from predators and other threats.
It's a critically important emotion. And the idea that somehow fear doesn't belong or is inappropriate or people can't handle it is anti-psychological. It's fundamentally, strategically flawed.
What do you do if you start from the assumption that people can't handle being afraid but the truth is inherently terrifying? You don't tell the whole truth. You tell them a version of it; you tell them a hopeful story. 'Don't scare people', unfortunately, in the climate realm, means to not tell them the truth.
[...] We need the right information—including its implications—in order to feel fear, which is appropriate, and let people use that scary reality to motivate systemic change."
Final words of wisdom:
"Let's do this! Together we can change the world. Let's get busy.
