When Climate Inaction Shapes Climate Responsibility: Moral Disengagement, Psychological Distance, and Information Seeking in Malaysia

Public engagement with climate change remains uneven despite growing exposure to climate risks and communication. While climate inaction is often explained as a result of weak concern, less attention has been given to whether inaction itself shapes how people interpret climate responsibility and information. Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, this study examines climate inaction from a behavior-to-attitude perspective, proposing that
limited action may trigger self-justifying processes that distance individuals from climate risks and shape climate-related information engagement. A nationwide online survey of 500 Malaysian adults was analysed using structural equation modelling. Results broadly supported the proposed model: climate inaction was associated with moral disengagement, greater psychological distance, lower climate concern, and higher climate skepticism, while climate information seeking played a complex role in these attitudinal outcomes. The findings suggest that climate inaction may actively sustain future disengagement by reshaping psychological and communicative responses to climate change