Authoritarian Reactive Climate Anger Displacement Effect (ARCADE) and its Consequences for Climate Obstruction and Authoritarianism

The impacts of climate change become increasingly tangible. Yet, political parties and leaders opposing climate change mitigation measures gain traction across countries, while polarization around climate policies increases. In this study, we conducted a YouGov-administered survey experiment (N=1967) to investigate how exposure to climate change threat could result in maladaptive responses, with a focus on individuals with authoritarian predispositions. We confirm a previous finding that climate change threat exposure can lead to affect displacement in people with authoritarian predispositions, where climate anger (directed at those in power) is redirected at non-conforming groups rather than mobilizing climate action. We extend these results, showing that not only does climate anger displacement result in lack of climate action and boosted authoritarian attitudes, it can also lead to the reactive response of climate obstruction. Based on these outcomes we propose the Authoritarian Reactive Climate Anger Displacement Effect (ARCADE) theoretical model.