Are COVID-19 and climate change competing crises? New evidence on the finite pool of worry and risk-as-feelings hypotheses

Recent studies have found mixed evidence on whether or not worrying about COVID-19 would lead to a decrease in climate change engagement. To gain more clarity in this line of research, we revisited the finite pool of worry and risk-as-feelings hypotheses by exploring whether and how COVID-19 health beliefs are associated with climate change engagement. Data were collected in February 2021 from a cross-sectional online survey of US adults (N = 434). Findings from structural equation modeling demonstrate that COVID-19 health beliefs were positively associated with fear of COVID-19, which further mediated the effect of COVID-19 health belief factors on climate change responses. While perceived severity of COVID-19 was positively associated with climate change concern, perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 was negatively associated with climate change concern. In summary, our study clarifies that a finite pool of worry hypothesis may be supported when the susceptibility dimension of risk is examined, and when evaluating the severity dimension, an opposite risk-as-feelings hypothesis may be supported.