Project on public health messaging on health and climate change

Community groups are informing our research

Climate change is an increasing risk to people’s lives in the UK - but little is known about how to increase public support for climate action. Our project aims to develop and conduct a survey to find out how best to communicate about climate change to the general public and how to vary messages for different groups of people. More details can be found on the project page.

At the start of our project, we needed to know what kind of topics people think about when thinking about climate change. This would help determine what kind of questions should be included in the survey. We looked at previous research, analysed the messages people sent on social media, and welcomed the input gathered through Public Involvement (PI).

In Spring 2023, our PI Lead met with 38 people. They were:

members of a church, who were having tea and biscuits after their church service
staff at a community nursery,
visitors of a community cafe (knitting group),
members of our PI Lead’s own network.

We chose this community-based approach to public involvement, rather than - for example - a more conventional PPI focus group, because it suited our aims. Our aims were: 1) Gathering information from people who may not usually be involved in research and may not have a particular interest in climate change. 2) Speaking with people from different ages, genders, and social backgrounds in both urban and (semi) rural areas. 3) Asking about six open and closed questions in quick (approx. 5-minute) conversations.

The idea of visiting community groups sprang from a connection we had with a community cafe. Before going ahead, we received advice from a climate emergency officer at a local authority. This person had successfully used a similar approach for a public consultation on a climate strategy. They confirmed that it is an effective way to reach people who are usually not involved in consultations.

Finding community groups

Making connections with the right kind of groups was the biggest challenge. We learned that the search for community groups required:

Thinking hard about (hidden) opportunities in existing networks: who can help connect with whom? (Think: six degrees of separation.)
Building on existing strong connections - i.e. very personal and close ones. They provided a shortcut to many communities but you need to be brave and ask for favours/introductions.
Helping contacts to pass on information. For example, by providing a written document about the research, public involvement and questions. This can help people and groups to discuss your request.
Flexibility: turn up on Sundays, at short notice - whatever is required to meet with people in communities.
Time and going with the flow: not every lead materialises and you may not quite know the make-up of a group until you get there.

Meeting with community groups

Meeting with the community groups was a true joy and privilege. People seemed at ease and happy to answer questions. From speaking with our contact at the local authority and our own experience, we distilled the following tips:

Identify yourself - wearing a work badge can help.
Provide a short plain English summary of the research and reason for asking questions - on paper and/or orally.
Provide a list of questions on paper, this helps steer the conversation.
Show an interest in the reason why people have gathered (for example, talk about their knitting, attend their church service) - it helps break the ice and establish the relationship.
Show people you are grateful for the opportunity to meet with them. For example, bring biscuits if appropriate. (Because the conversations were so short, we did not offer individual payments.)
Don’t interrupt people while they are having their meal.

Questions & summary of answers

Our PPI Lead asked everyone the same questions. Even though the conversations were very short, most were remarkably rich and revealing. People seemed eager to talk about climate change.

Do you ever think about climate change?
- Young people thought about it less than older people. Younger people seemed more focused on the here and now.
- About half of the people said they thought about it a lot or when triggered by news items, doing the recycling, driving their car, etc.

If you hear the word ‘climate change’, what is the first thing you think of?
- (Changing) weather patterns and their effects on the physical environment (such as melting ice caps, floods, drought, heat, desert expansion) were mentioned most. Fear/ doom/disaster also scored high.

When/if you think about climate change, what do you think/worry about the most (and why)?
- Future generations scored highest as a worry, followed by what was happening in other countries at the moment (e.g. bush fires), and lack of action.
- Quite a few people indicated that they didn’t think or worry about it. Some because they were just getting on with it, but others because they didn’t understand climate change. Incidentally, one person was most worried about not understanding.

What inspires/spurs you on the most to take steps to help slow down climate change?
- Most people said they wanted to “do their bit”, without specifying a specific goal.
- Saving the environment, nature, the planet was also mentioned frequently.
- Knowing what would help, and helping future generations also ranked high.

Is it important to you to know what you can do to help slow down climate change? Where do you find information / who do you listen to?
- Almost all people agreed that good information was important to them. And nature/wildlife documentaries/David Attenborough were mentioned across all groups as a trusted source of information. The news was another important source.
- Some older people mentioned their grandchildren as a source of information. One remarked that the younger the grandchild, the better informed they seemed to be.

Impact

The Public Involvement has so far provided the research team with:

A feel for what climate change means to people of different ages, genders, places and backgrounds in the UK to help determine the content of a UK-wide climate change survey.
An alert to the importance of including ‘not sure’ and ‘no opinion’ options when asking questions about support for policy in the survey
Connections with community groups to invite feedback on the questions in our UK-wide survey, once we have developed them. This activity will be conducted by the PI lead in a similar way to the pre-application Public Involvement.

Initiating these conversations about climate change may also have some direct impact on the support for climate action. Studies have found that, through discussion, people can engage their friends and family in a positive feedback loop that encourages deeper engagement with the issue of climate change.