Can we do more than ?bounce back?? Transilience in the face of climate change risks

Climate change is negatively affecting people's health, safety, and well-being. Therefore, it is crucial to understand whether people perceive they have the capacity to adapt to climate change. Most studies on whether people can adapt to climate change focus on preventing negative outcomes and the ability to 'bounce back'. We propose that adaptation may have positive consequences too. We introduce the construct of transilience to capture people's perceived capacity to persist, adapt flexibly, and positively transform in the face of climate change risks. We developed a scale to assess transilience in the context of climate change risks and conducted four empirical studies to validate it. Overall, the findings support the content, concurrent, discriminant and predictive validity of the transilience scale. People generally perceive they can be transilient in the face of climate change risks, and higher transilience is, as expected, positively related to climate change adaptation actions and general well-being. Our findings indicate that people perceive adapting to climate change can, not only minimize harm, but also provide beneficial opportunities. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.

Automated summary

Climate change has negative impacts on people's health, safety, and well-being. Previous studies mainly focus on negative outcomes and the ability to bounce back from climate change. In this study, the concept of transilience is introduced, which captures people's perceived capacity to persist, adapt flexibly, and positively transform in the face of climate change risks. A scale is developed and validated to assess transilience, showing significant positive relationships between transilience, climate change adaptation actions, and general well-being. The findings suggest that adapting to climate change not only minimizes harm but also provides beneficial opportunities. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.