Emotions matter: Lessons learned about community members’ climate attitudes from an educational climate change museum exhibit
Monika Lohani 1 2 * , Lynne Zummo 2 3 , Benjamin Janney 3
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1 Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA2 Natural History Museum of Utah, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA3 Department of Educational Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Climate views vary widely and can inform engagement in pro-environmental actions. An underexplored construct that may formulate and maintain climate attitudes and beliefs is emotional responses. The current study examines the relationship between climate views and emotional responses to climate change education. In order to test this question, we utilized the real-world setting of a climate change exhibit at a natural history museum that provided visitors with a scientifically accurate account of the climate crisis. The results suggested that those who were more concerned about and engaged with the climate crisis had negative responses to the section of the exhibit on the realities of the climate crisis, as well as positive responses to the section of the exhibit imagining possibilities for the future through collective action. Findings show that strong climate emotions are an important correlation of climate attitudes and beliefs, highlighting the integral role of emotions in climate education.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED, Volume 22, Issue 2, 2026, Article No: e2609

https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/17847

Publication date: 01 Apr 2026

Online publication date: 03 Feb 2026

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