A new planetary affective science framework for eco-emotions: Findings on eco-anger, eco-grief, and eco-anxiety

Abstract

Emotions play a critical role in human health and behavior yet have largely been overlooked in the context of the global environmental crisis (GEC). Despite recent emphasis on climate anxiety and eco-anxiety, there is a lack of psychometric or dimensional measures assessing the fuller range of GEC-associated emotions, especially beyond Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) contexts. Further conceptual gaps hinder structured inquiry and generalizability. This exploratory study applies a new planetary affective science framework to holistically and systematically address these issues. We used a circumplex model to map core affect and structured interviews with 15 Turkish environmentalists to explore the range of eco-emotions. Our findings suggest the prevalence of eco-anger and eco-grief over the eco-anxiety most often assessed in WEIRD contexts. Similar findings in post-disaster situations underscore participants’ heightened vulnerability to cumulative stressors and the dangers of emotion-specific omissions (e.g., anger) in assessment tools. We identified environmental justice, developing country tension, self-efficacy dimensions, and responsibility attributions to the Turkish government and Global North as key contextual factors in these differentiated eco-emotional patterns. Findings constitute the first step toward more holistic, diverse, and conceptually rigorous eco-emotions research, urgently needed for more effective pro-environmental health and behavioral interventions amidst the intensifying GEC. New conceptual framework introduced for eco-emotions built on the nine planetary boundaries. Structured interviews with 15 Turkish participants engaged in environmental work. Application of state-of-the-art affective science framework revealed eco-anger and eco-grief as most prominent eco-emotions. Eco-emotions shaped by environmental justice, Global North responsibility attribution, self-efficacy, country development, and Turkish governmental responsibility. Individual pro-environmental behavior, avoidance, and distraction most commonly reported emotion regulation and coping strategies, possibly due to political barriers on collective behaviors (e.g., protesting).