BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1624782
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate Change AnxietyView all 13 articles
Climate Anxiety Impairs Sustained Attention: Objective Evidence of a Cognitive Cost
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Miami, Coral Gables, United States
- 2University of Kentucky, Lexington, United States
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Introduction: As climate anxiety rises globally, it may influence how individuals cognitively engage with the climate crisis. Although cognitive functioning is a key component of climate anxiety, its association with objectively measurable cognitive performance impairment remains unclear. This study examines whether individual differences in climate anxiety correspond with performance on a task measuring sustained attention. Methods: A total of 182 undergraduate students completed self-report measures of climate anxiety, personal climate change experience, and general anxiety and depression. In addition, they completed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART), which measures attentional performance through accuracy and response time variability. Results: Greater climate anxiety was associated with reduced SART accuracy (r = –.310, p < .001) and greater response time variability (r = .188, p = .024). Consistent with prior research, climate anxiety also correlated with personal experience of climate change and higher levels of anxiety and depression. However, personal experience with climate change as well as anxiety and depression were not significantly related to SART outcomes. Discussion: Results show that greater climate anxiety is associated with reduced attentional task performance, independent of climate change experience or general psychological distress. Given the central role of attention in decision-making and action-planning, these findings underscore how this cognitive vulnerability may pose a critical barrier to adaptive engagement and effective climate action. The findings also highlight the need for research on approaches to bolster sustained attention as we face growing climate anxiety in a warming world.
Keywords: Eco-anxiety, Climate anxiety, cognitive control, cognitive performance, sustained attention
Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 09 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Denkova, Tardibuono, Tsukahara, Zanesco and Jha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ekaterina Denkova, University of Miami, Coral Gables, United States
Taylor K. Tardibuono, University of Miami, Coral Gables, United States
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