Sammendrag
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasized that the world will face unavoidable climate change hazards if global warming exceeds 1.5 degrees (IPCC, 2022). Despite the warnings, researchers have documented a knowledge-behavior gap: even if people are aware of the threats posed by climate change, they are not engaging in sustainable actions (Wyss & Berger, 2022). Considering the literature (e.g.,Steynor et al., 2021; O´Connor, Bard & Fisher 1999) demonstrating that risk perception guides behavior and that people prioritize personal and close risks before abstract ones, the aim of this paper is to examine some of the psychological and social factors that could attenuate or amplify peoples´ risk perception of climate change. The data are based on a nationwide sample (N = 293), conducted through a cross-sectional survey. By using a correlational analysis and a hierarchical regression analysis did the results from the current study indicate that descriptive and prescriptive social norms are statistically correlated with, and predicting risk perception of climate change. However, psychological distance to flooding did not correlate or predict risk perception of climate change. Furthermore, the results from the paired t-test suggested that the respondents perceive climate change as somewhat more societal than personal. The results herein imply future research should consider investigating if communicating climate change hazards as local in their effect can lead Norwegians to perceive climate change risk as more personal and urgent, and that social norms have the potential to amplify Norwegians´ climate change risk perception – bot implication can help decrease the knowledge-behavior gap.