Incidents like the one involving Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate, who was cropped out of a group photo with other climate activists, are emblematic of the assumption that climate protection is primarily a concern of White people. In this article, we explore potential (social) psychological explanations for the lack of (perceived) diversity in climate activism, as well as approaches to increase diversity.

While the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns of an escalation of the climate crisis and climate movements call for effective measures to mitigate climate change, their political implementation is making slow progress. How will this perception of failure and frustration impact the climate movement? Does it lead to their fragmentation and radicalization, or do they persist with previous forms of action? This article describes psychological studies on the effects of perceived success and failure by social movements.

Nothing seems as simple to us as perceiving the world around us. But in fact, the way our brain processes sensory input is astonishingly complex. It first breaks down our sensory impressions into small individual features. These individual features must then be put together like a jigsaw puzzle. But how does our brain “know” which features belong to which object, person, or environmental event?