On Monday October 9, NODES (Narratives Observatory combatting Disinformation in Europe Systemically) will unveil the initial findings of a research project co-funded by the European Commission in response to the pressing challenge of understanding the powerful narratives that shape citizen’s minds and impact individual and social behaviours. Preliminary results show how narratives around climate change have been shifting these past years, shedding light as to why we are seeing increasing climate denialism, and what narratives can teach us about these trends and how to depolarise the conversation.
Narratives – or simply the stories we share, are the primary tool by which we communicate, assimilate and store information.
They unite and divide us, creating and sustaining ‘narrative communities’.
Their impact is often unintuitive, and the main axes of the dispute do not revolve around simple climate categories (reduce emissions or not to reduce emissions), but around deeper values such as individual freedom, the right to economic development, a sense of powerlessness or solidarity, etc.