Replying to Dead Plants raise belief in Climate Change

People's belief in global warming can be swayed by something as simple as a houseplant. Participants of a French study believed in climate change much more strongly if there was a dead ficus in the interview room.

In a study by the University of Bretagne-Sud, 60 volunteers answered questions about topical issues. Some of the participants took part in the study in a room with a blooming ficus, while others sat in one with a dead and withered ficus.

The analysis of the answers showed a pattern, that people believed much strongly in the phenomenon of climate change and global warming in the room with a dead houseplant. The withered plant's effect was not seen in any other topical questions, only those concerning the climate issue.

When the reseacrhers added more dead plants up to three inside the room, the opinions on climate change became even stronger.

The head researcher Nicholas Guéguen saw that people did not register at all that the plant life has anything to do with the study, so the effect was subliminal.

"A dead or withered plant may cause a reaction towards concepts concerning global warming, such as dryness and heat."

Earlier research has shown instances where people interviewed on a warm and sunny day believed that climate change was real and heading towards global warming, while people interviewed on cloudy days percieved climate change as more rains and storms.

The study can be found in the newest Journal of Environmental Psychology.


I think it's an interesting phenomenon again - definitely something that can and already has been used to guilt trip people into becoming greener in their ways, and while it's a small scale study indeed, I'm sure similar methods could be used to reproduce results showing inherent nationalism, racism, fanaticism and other subliminal and underlying issues.