Intergroup Conflict Over Climate Change: Problems and Solutions

ABSTRACT Global progress in combatting climate change is being slowed by intergroup conflict and tribalism. Addressing the intergroup tensions of today is a pre‐requisite for avoiding violent intergroup tensions in the future, tensions that may threaten societal structures we currently take for granted. This paper highlights five sources of intergroup conflict that compromise humans’ ability to effectively and swiftly respond to climate change: political tribalism, populist suspicion of elites, regional differences within nations, international conflicts, and tensions between and within activist identities. We then draw on established and emerging social psychological theorising to describe five strategies for constructively managing this intergroup conflict: maintaining climate justice, reducing disinformation and silencing bad‐faith actors, maintaining cohesion among progressive forces, focusing on trusted messengers, and empathic communication. Throughout we underscore the extent to which policy making and strategic communication can play roles in depolarising debate about climate change.