Cognitive Dissonance as a Mediator of Climate Change Attitude: The Moderating Role of Environmental Knowledge
Keywords:
Climate Change Discourse, Cognitive Dissonance, Environmental Knowledge, Climate Change Attitudes, Moderated MediationAbstract
Pakistan is consistently ranked among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, yet public attitudes toward climate change remain inconsistent and, at times, resistant to change. Grounded in cognitive dissonance theory, this study examined cognitive dissonance as a mediator of the relationship between climate change discourse exposure on social media and climate change attitudes, and tested environmental knowledge as a moderator of this process. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 256 Pakistani university students aged 19–26, yielding a final clean sample of 250 after excluding invalid responses. Data were analyzed using SPSS and the Hayes PROCESS macro to test a moderated mediation model. Results showed that discourse exposure was positively associated with cognitive dissonance (b = 0.43, p < .001), which in turn significantly predicted climate change attitudes (b = 0.29, p < .001), supporting a significant indirect effect (ab = 0.13, 95% CI [0.08, 0.20]). Environmental knowledge significantly moderated this mediating pathway (index of moderated mediation = -0.06, 95% CI [-0.11, -0.02]): the indirect effect of discourse exposure on attitudes through dissonance was strongest among students with low environmental knowledge and weakest among those with high environmental knowledge. These findings extend cognitive dissonance theory into a social-media-exposure context within a developing country and suggest that environmental knowledge may buffer attitudes from being driven primarily by the discomfort of conflicting information. Implications for climate communication and environmental education among Pakistani youth are discussed.
References
Abousoliman, A. D., Ibrahim, A. M., Abualruz, H., Magdi, H. M., Zaghamir, D. E. F., Alhowimel, A., El-Monshed, A. H., El-Gazar, H. E., & Zoromba, M. A. (2024). Exploring the relationship between nursing students' knowledge and attitudes towards climate change and their psychological distress: A cross-national investigation. BMC Nursing, 23(1), Article 294. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-01927-8
Ebrahimi, E. (2025). Climate change denial as identity defence: Understanding resistance beyond ignorance. Environmental Management, 76(2), 54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-025-02353-5
Eckstein, D., Künzel, V., & Schäfer, L. (2021). Global climate risk index 2021: Who suffers most from extreme weather events? Weather-related loss events in 2019 and 2000 to 2019. Germanwatch.
Elliot, A. J., & Devine, P. G. (1994). On the motivational nature of cognitive dissonance: Dissonance as psychological discomfort. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 382–394.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press.
Feygina, I., Jost, J. T., & Goldsmith, R. E. (2010). System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of “system-sanctioned change.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(3), 326–338. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209351435
Geiger, S. M., Geiger, M., & Wilhelm, O. (2019). Environment-specific vs. general knowledge and their role in pro-environmental behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 718. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00718
Hart, P. S., & Nisbet, E. C. (2012). Boomerang effects in science communication: How motivated reasoning and identity cues amplify opinion polarization about climate mitigation policies. Communication Research, 39(6), 701–723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650211416646
Irfan, O., Dhillon, R. A., Qamar, M. A., Soomar, S. M., Manzoor, K., Rizwan, W., Ali, H. Z., Arshad, Z., & Khan, J. A. (2024). A nationwide survey following the devastating 2022 floods in Pakistan: Current state of knowledge, attitude, and perception toward climate change and its health consequences. Cureus, 16(7), e63838. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.63838
Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 239–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620220145401
Natalia, M., Ullah, W., Khan, A. R., Wahid, A., Mehmood, M. S., & Naz, M. (2023). Investigation among students' and teachers' perception of climate health awareness regarding low carbon ecofriendly practices. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11, 1177952. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1177952
Roxburgh, N., Guan, D., Shin, K. J., Rand, W., Managi, S., Lovelace, R., & Meng, J. (2019). Characterising climate change discourse on social media during extreme weather events. Global Environmental Change, 54, 50–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.11.004
Treen, K. M. d'I., Williams, H. T. P., & O'Neill, S. J. (2020). Online misinformation about climate change. WIREs Climate Change, 11(5), e665. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.665
Williams, H. T. P., McMurray, J. R., Kurz, T., & Hugo Lambert, F. (2015). Network analysis reveals open forums and echo chambers in social media discussions of climate change. Global Environmental Change, 32, 126–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.03.006
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Pakistan Journal of Positive Psychology
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
