Manipulating empathy

Disinformation can also manipulate empathy by selectively focusing on the negative impacts of climate policies on specific groups, while downplaying or ignoring the broader benefits. This tactic can create emotional resistance to climate action by highlighting the potential hardships faced by workers in fossil fuel industries, without acknowledging the greater harm caused by unchecked climate change to vulnerable populations worldwide.

Campaigns that spotlight the plight of coal miners or oil workers who might lose their jobs due to climate policies often fail to mention the broader benefits of those policies, such as reduced health care costs due to cleaner air or the creation of new jobs in renewable energy sectors. This selective use of empathy skews the narrative, making it emotionally challenging for people to support necessary changes.