Climate risk perceptions in Major League Baseball

This study investigates how Major League Baseball (MLB) fans perceive climate change risks and whether those perceptions influence their willingness to adopt climate-adaptive behaviors. MLB is particularly vulnerable to climate change due to its outdoor nature, long season, and broad geographic footprint across North America. The article contributes to sport ecology and environmental psychology by examining whether sport fandom can help reduce psychological distance from climate change and motivate climate action among fans.

The research consisted in a cross-sectional online survey of 540 self-identified MLB fans in the United States using Amazon Mechanical Turk to test relationships between climate skepticism, emotional responses, personal experiences with extreme weather, climate risk perceptions, willingness to adapt, and sport identification. The study found that climate skepticism reduced fans’ climate risk perceptions, while negative emotions toward climate change and personal experiences with extreme weather increased them. General climate risk perceptions strongly predicted sport-specific climate risk perceptions, which in turn positively influenced fans’ willingness to adopt climate-adaptive behaviors. Highly identified MLB fans were more emotionally responsive to climate change, although willingness to adapt was similar across fan identification groups.

Sport organizations can use fandom and emotional attachment to increase climate awareness and encourage pro-environmental behaviors among supporters. The study also provides empirical support for the United Nations Sport for Climate Action Framework by demonstrating that sport can serve as a meaningful platform for climate communication and engagement.

CITE: Murfree, J. R. (2023). Exploring Major League Baseball fans’ climate change risk perceptions and adaptation willingness. Sustainability, 15(10), 7980. DOI: 10.3390/su15107980