Climate change is intrinsically complex and demands a certain degree of abstraction. However, different individuals report a wide range and degree of tangible and sensory experiences of climate change. As perceptual and sensory awareness of climate change has important consequences for the promotion of sustainable behaviors, pro-climate policies, and clinical interventions for climate-related disorders such as climate anxiety, new specific tools are required: herein we detail the development of a psychometric measure of perceptual awareness of climate change, as well as provide evidence for its discriminant, convergent, and predictive validity for sustainable behaviors. The administration of this scale on a representative sample of the UK population (Study 1) yielded a 4-factor structure, with items measuring perception of temperature changes and those measuring perception of humidity changes loading on separate factors, and two additional factors identifying the awareness of own feelings and perception of media attention on climate change. A second administration (Study 2) to an independent sample gathered from the Italian population supports the reliability of this factorial structure. As the rising field of climate neuroscience starts to investigate the determinants of perceptions of climate change, this novel scale will allow assessing the perceptual features affecting awareness of climate change.

The adoption of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) in higher education (HE) has led to an urgent need to foster genAI literacy among staff. Thus, we drew on a genAI introductory course for staff at a major university college in Norway to examine, through a one-group pre-/post-test design, if participation was associated with an increased genAI acceptance, i.e. intention to use genAI tools. We posed five hypotheses based on the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) and the Artificial Intelligence Attitude Scale (AIAS) to explore the predictive relationship between pre- and post-course genAI acceptance, the moderating effects of demographic and experiential variables, and changes in the underlying factors of genAI acceptance over time. Through PLS-SEM we discovered that Habit and AI attitudes were significant predictors of genAI acceptance at the beginning (T1), but that none of the examined variables significantly predicted genAI acceptance at the end of the course (T2). Behavioral intentions at T1 did not significantly predict Behavioral intentions at T2, either. However, the UTAUT2 factors combined with AI attitudes explained 79.5% of the variance in genAI acceptance at T1 and 82.4% at T2. Neither gender, age, experience with genAI, nor teaching position moderated the relationship between genAI acceptance at T1 and T2. Last, but not least we found a significant and large increase in genAI use from T1 to T2. Similarly, all UTAUT2 predictor variables significantly increased while AI attitudes did not. Our study is the first to implement a pre-/post-test design utilizing the UTAUT2 framework among HE staff. Our findings suggest that course participation is associated with changes in prior acceptance and intention patterns, potentially reducing disparities in familiarity and use, thereby facilitating professional development within a collegial community. Our novel results have implications for future research and HE institutional professional development worldwide.

One significant obstacle to gaining a widespread awareness of the ongoing climate change is the nature of its manifestations in relation to our perception: climate change effects are gradual, distributed, and sometimes seemingly contradictory. These features result in a lag in collective climate action and sometimes foster climate skepticism and climate denial. While the literature on climate change perception and belief has thoroughly explored its sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects, research on the potential contribution of psychophysiological factors remains scarce. In this perspective paper, we outline evidence and arguments for the involvement of psychophysiological systems such as thermoception, hygroreception, and interoception in modulating climate change awareness. We discuss psychophysiological mechanisms of climate change awareness in animals and humans, as well as possible sources of individual variance in climate change perception. We conclude by suggesting novel research questions which would be worthwhile to pursue in future studies.