Climate change: Improved communication based on credition
An impulse from Switzerland ...
... connecting two worlds of research in Graz
On the initiative of the Swiss hope researcher Andreas Krafft (University of St. Gallen), a link was established between the Credition Research Project and the Environmental Systems Science at the University of Graz. This had positive effects. Between December 2024 and March 2025, the Wegener Centre for Climate and Global Change organised several workshops on the question: Can an understanding of creditions positively influence communication about the challenges of climate change?
Prof Hans-Ferdinand Angel
Climate change and sustainability are complicated topics in social and political communication. They lie in a field of tension between highly complex global contexts and the question of the scope of individual options for action. Even if this is rarely discussed, it is a question of faith how people position themselves in this area of tension and what emotions are associated with their positioning. Belief is one of the most effective human factors in the design of sustainable systems. Understanding how creditions (belief processes) take place until they as a result individual "belief" could be an added value in climate-related social and political discourses.
Prof Karl Steininger
As a society, we can transform the challenges of climate change and meet them with a social process that enables us to transition to a future that we want to live as a society. This involves dialogue and negotiation within society, which Credition can support in understanding.
Assoc. Prof. Thomas Brudermann
When it comes to effectively communicating man-made climate change, it is not only the various self-protection mechanisms that stand in our way, but also existing beliefs. Understanding Credition helps us to communicate and ultimately overcome climate change as the ultimate societal challenge.
