Social vigilantism and the extremity, superiority, and defense of attitudes toward climate change

Public polarization toward the issue of climate change has increased in recent years. SV is the extent to which individuals believe their opinions are superior to others' and should be impressed onto others. We assert social vigilantism (SV) may provide important explanation of attitudes toward, as well as the resistance to and perceptions of those who challenge individuals' attitudes toward, climate change.' SV has been previously shown to predict more extreme attitudes toward climate change and other political issues. We found SV predicted the extremity, strength, and superiority of attitudes toward climate change, and resistance to attitude challenges (Study 1). We then manipulated whether an individual agreed or disagreed with the participant in a vignette and measured participants' perceptions of the other individual. We found higher levels of SV were associated with more positive perceptions of the other individual (Study 2). Interestingly, this finding was independent of whether the other individual agreed with or disagreed with the participant. This may be because the other individual was still discussing political issues, providing participants the opportunity to impress their own beliefs. These findings may indicate future discussions about climate change, while contentious and sometimes hostile, may inspire respect, even for opposing viewpoints. •Social vigilantism predicts climate change attitude extremity.•Social vigilantism predicts resistance to climate change attitude challenges.•Social vigilantism predicts positive perceptions of individuals engaged in debates.