ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter provides a critical introduction to research on public perceptions and images relating to environmental change and associated risks. The chapter focuses primarily on climate change, since this is where a considerable amount of research has focused in recent years, although research on landscape and ecosystem change is also touched upon. The chapter draws on quantitative and qualitative research within psychological and related domains from across several countries. The next section reviews research on awareness and knowledge about environmental change; after this, research on attitudes and concern about environmental change is discussed. Building on this, the following section focuses on research on subjective imagery evoked by climate change. Research into the effects on public perceptions of climate change communication is then discussed. The final section concludes with implications of this research for communication efforts and future research.
