Motivated by worry, burdened by hopelessness: Emotional correlates of climate action and personal well‐being

Abstract

As public awareness of climate change grows, individuals increasingly report experiencing negative emotions such as eco‐worry and eco‐hopelessness. This study investigated how these two emotions are associated with psychological well‐being and pro‐environmental behavior (PEB) and whether the focus of these emotions (individual/micro vs. collective/macro) influences these relationships. Two cross‐sectional studies were conducted with adult participants from Germany. Study 1 included 339 individuals aged between 18 and 76 years ( M  = 33.17, SD  = 15.76; 53.4% male, 46.0% female, 0.6% diverse), and Study 2 included 313 individuals ( M  = 34.93, SD  = 15.70, 18–84 years; 50.2% male, 49.8% female). Analyses revealed that eco‐hopelessness was consistently associated with lower emotional well‐being and life satisfaction, whereas eco‐worry showed no associations with well‐being. In contrast, eco‐worry was robustly related to PEB, whereas eco‐hopelessness showed no association. Multigroup structural equation modeling further supported the replication of these results across both studies. In addition, the micro–macro perspectives showed distinct relations: Micro eco‐hopelessness was more strongly linked to lower well‐being, whereas macro eco‐worry was more strongly associated with PEB. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between specific climate‐related emotions and recognizing differential relations for an individual versus a collective focus.