Secure and defensive forms of national identity and public support for climate policies

Abstract

The European Union currently aims to achieve fossil fuels independence and to become the first climate-neutral continent by endorsing the Green Deal policy agenda. In this work, we focus on the role of secure and defensive forms of national identity in shaping citizens’ readiness to support versus oppose public policies aimed at climate neutrality and support for sources of energy perceived as traditional and non-traditional. Namely, we distinguish between national narcissism, which is a belief that one’s national group is exceptional and deserves external recognition underlain by unsatisfied psychological needs, and secure national identification, which reflects feelings of strong bonds and solidarity with one’s ingroup members, and sense of satisfaction in group membership. We hypothesize that in contrast to secure national identification, national narcissism, due to its motivational underpinnings, is related negatively to support for climate-change mitigating solutions. In Study 1 (N = 1134), we show that while secure national identity is positively related to support for developing renewable sources of energy and the Green Deal policy agenda, national narcissism is positively related to support for fossil fuel energy (and vice versa). In Study 2 (N = 1016), we found that allocating funds for reinforcing the green image of a country goes hand in hand with the support for policies aimed at mitigating climate change among those high in national narcissism. We put these findings in perspective by discussing the role of national narratives around the traditional sources of energy in shaping support for climate change mitigating policies.