logo
welcome
Wired

Wired

In Praise of Climate Virtue Signaling

Wired
Summary
Nutrition label

70% Informative

A study by a Cardiff University psychologist interviewed 19 members of the British parliament.

The study found that some MPs were worried about being seen as environmental radicals.

But others were concerned that they would be seen as “virtue signaling” and alienating their voters.

The dominant message from recent politicians is that tackling climate change should not—must not—necessarily—require significant behavior change.

Morality isn’t the whole part of the climate story, but it’s not exactly a footnote either, says Westlake .

The decisionmaking process of Are you going to take that flight?’ needs to be normalized, he says.

Westlake says this serves an important purpose to direct attention to people whose lifestyles have an exceptionally high carbon impact.

VR Score

73

Informative language

71

Neutral language

54

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

44

Offensive language

offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

detected

Time-value

medium-lived

Affiliate links

no affiliate links