‘Courage without the certainty of a happy ending’: the emotion regulation of environmental activists

Abstract

Climate change and environmental degradation are the most serious and fundamental problems of our time and focal points for many activist groups and organizations. In this paper, we adopt a psychological perspective to explore the emotions and emotion regulation of environmental activists. We know from the literature that facing the reality of the climate crisis, and the risks involved, often means having to deal with powerful emotions such as fear and anxiety. In addition, activists in general typically deal with personal, cultural as well as structural challenges that often lead to dropout or burnout. Although we know quite a lot about the ways in which emotions mobilize and energize activism, we know less about the ways in which environmental activists regulate their emotions to improve their wellbeing for sustained activism. In the present study, we interviewed a broad international sample of 30 activists from Extinction Rebellion and similar organizations sharing the principles of regenerative culture encouraging emotion regulation among members. The informants experienced a wide range of negative, but also positive, emotions in relation to the experience of ‘living in climate truth’ as well as their everyday activism. Their emotion regulation strategies could be grouped into two themes: ‘Taking action to heal’ and ‘healing to sustain action’. Both themes reflected the ability to remain emotionally flexible through questioning, and not being attached to the outcomes of activism. This implied the down-regulation and transforming of negative emotions as well as the cultivating and tempering of positive emotions.