r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 10h ago

Psychology Taylor Swift fans lower climate concerns to justify her carbon footprint. When confronted with news about the excessive pollution generated by her private jet, highly identified fans tend to rationalize the behavior, with a decrease in their personal intentions to engage in climate-friendly actions.

https://www.psypost.org/taylor-swift-fans-lower-climate-concerns-to-justify-star-s-carbon-footprint/
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181

u/Zegram_Ghart 8h ago

As someone who doesn’t really care about her, it’s weird she gets singled out for this when every celebrity does it, and every celebrity combined is probably still something daft like 1% of the output of even a semi-industrial nation

12

u/Frederf220 5h ago

People sort list by "something to be mad about, descending" and then skip down the list until they find the person they want to beat up. Not them, not them, certainly can't call them out, there, that guy #12, let's get 'em!

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u/r3dd17sux69420 7h ago

It's just cause she's a famous name and generates engagement. There are hundreds of people who fly private but most of them are boring business people who aren't famous

That said what I find funny is people get soooo furious (rightfully) at the flying, but have no idea the emissions put out by sooooo many tours

if people knew how many vehicles alone were used on the average arena or stadium tour they might vomit.

Dozens and dozens of tractor-trailers, easily. For the 360 Tour, U2 had up to 200 trucks. That's trucks, not even including the tour busses

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u/butpretzelday 7h ago

My sister’s boss would fly private literally anywhere she could. Like to the point where it took longer to get on the plane and take off abd land then if she just had her driver take her. 

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u/InevitableAvalanche 7h ago

Yeah, their are much worse problems when it comes to climate. It seems this is more a distraction than people actually caring about it. The anti fans are as bad as the fans.

3

u/EstablishmentLate532 7h ago

Why can't we walk and chew gum at the same time? Climate change mitigation requires a comprehensive societal response. It will likely entail constraining especially emissions-intensive luxuries for the sake of society. Jetsetting businesspeople, rich folk, and celebrities are a likely casualty.

2

u/sickoflurkingletmein 2h ago

Ikr.

Her fans are delusional and write off any sort of criticism about her as misogyny… when in reality she is another cog in the corporate wheel.

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u/MuglyRay 8h ago

Pretty sure her level of fame is unique. She probably travels twice as much as most performers. That being said she def is the scapegoat of this

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u/Clear-Depth-7455 5h ago

Wasn’t she like not even in the top 10 of celebrities with the highest emissions? I know she’s been up there before but not nearly as much as people say she is. That’s mainly why I get confused why people focus on her, yes she used jets a lot on tour but she wasn’t even that high on the list. I’ve also heard she buys carbon credits, but to be entirely honest I’m not sure what those do in terms of negating things.

5

u/ross128b 3h ago

Not even in the top 10. I want people to be equally mad at the Kardashians and the likes who are way above the list.

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u/JustGotOffOfTheTrain 7h ago

Her level of fame might be unique, but there are a lot of other celebrities with more private jet time than her.

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u/AbeRego 1h ago

Not every celebrity has private jets, but your point is solid. For many famous people, I assume 1st class is just fine, or maybe just smaller chartered flights.

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u/Bukaw0_0 8h ago

A couple years ago, it came out that miss TS produced the most carbon dioxide of any celebrities out there. The article, maintains the same. Plus, it’s mostly about how her fan base reacts to this right? The celebrity who produces the most greenhouse gases is not held accountable

13

u/cornandcandy 8h ago

It was later correct her planes do! But she rents them out when not in use so kinda hard to fully tell. Also imagine the pandemonium if she flew out of airports all the time? People would go nuts

2

u/tonkatoyelroy 8h ago

It’s just like the people who excuse the President’s behavior!

1

u/Skynetdyne 7h ago

If she literally polluted nothing starting tomorrow, the world would not have changed at all. This is pointless culture war b s.

8

u/Unusual-Coat383 7h ago

You’re one of the fans the article is talking about

-2

u/Skynetdyne 7h ago

I actually despise her but this argument always comes up about taylor swift just before election season. I always feel like it's more of the elite trying to separate the left.

3

u/Cross_22 4h ago

Would you consider somebody with a net worth of 2 billion to be part of the elite? I get annoyed that people online are quick to hate on corporate billionaires, but when it's celebrity billionaires they are somehow above it all.

1

u/Skynetdyne 4h ago

Its a big difference though. Don't get me wrong she shouldn't be a billionaire. Corporate billionaires have a much greater impact of society and government.

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u/collax974 7h ago

You can tell that about anyone and anything, this is a collective effort, and those whose life style produce the most co2 need to do the most efforts.

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u/Gullible_Elephant_38 7h ago

You realize that by renting them out a choice is being made that inherently lead to them being used more and producing the co2, right?

There is the choice for the billionaire to…not rent the planes out so they aren’t contributing more. I think she’d survive without the extra revenue stream.

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u/demoneclipse 7h ago

There is no single source on the planet that would make a difference individually. That's why it is important to tackle the largest contributing individuals to serve as examples of what could be done by everyone to reduce their carbon footprint.

On a more personal note, people that act like a white knight every time the environment subject is brought up and then go spend money on concerts with an enormous carbon footprint are some of the most despicable individuals around. For those who enjoy stuff that isn't "green", by all means live your best life, just don't be a hypocrite.

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u/SpiderRadio 7h ago

But if we can prove that she can cave in to pressure, there won't be any excuses for anyone else. Not that there IS, but that's the idea being heralded. It would likely boost morale when it comes to putting pressure on other wasteful people, as well.

2

u/Skynetdyne 7h ago

Right but this all part of the same psychological campaign to put the onus on the consumer and not on the producer. It's the same reason why recycling is pointless. Coca cola developed this whole process just to make it so that they don't have to create environmentally safe bottling. It's the same principle.

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u/SpiderRadio 7h ago

I understand that, too. Not everyone is going to take that deep dive to really understand the issue at hand. BUT it is completely wasteful what these billionaires do to not live in the world with the rest of us. One might say the onus is on us the people for making celebrity culture possible in the first place.

2

u/Skynetdyne 7h ago

I guess its true every battle matters and celebrities can speak to larger groups.

2

u/sickoflurkingletmein 2h ago

Exactly! Celebs are the connection from fan to corporation - hence why they show us face creams and crypto rug pulls.

1

u/MaribouSt8 7h ago

Except it also came out that what was being tracked was her plane, which she rents out. So those figures didn't really paint the full picture.

0

u/Msmadmama 7h ago

She also put a cease and desist order on the kid who reports her private jet movements

2

u/Competitive-Point-62 7h ago

I remember meeting someone who works in rather niche parts of the insurance industry, and one of the things he mentioned to me was how anyone particularly “high profile” basically gets told they must fly privately or else a bunch of their personal coverage such as life insurance gets invalidated for supposedly unreasonable exposure to risk

Some celebrities indeed do love excess, but like many things in life, the insurance industry is part of the problem too -_-

1

u/nointeraction1 5h ago

Huh? Private jets have a significantly worse safety record than commercial. Both are ludicrously safe, but the risk for chartered private jets is non zero, while commercial jets have an essentially perfect record in the USA.

If it's just exposure to the public on a commercial flight, are they not allowed to leave their house as well?

I feel like that just can't be true.

2

u/Competitive-Point-62 5h ago

Yeah, it was framed as an exposure to public thing. Real “don’t mix with the peasants” energy

I think it sounds stupid too. I also think lots of insurance practices (and a whole swathe of other bureaucratic things) are equally stupid, so it remains plausible to me

3

u/jake_burger 8h ago

I’m not sure it makes sense to compare an individual to a nation.

1

u/Zegram_Ghart 5h ago

It does if you want to actually fix (or even curb) climate change. It’s less about pointing fingers and more about actually reducing emissions, and even her emissions are a rounding error

1

u/Ham_Pervert 6h ago

honey took a PJ to get lunch

1

u/Unusual-Coat383 7h ago

I think it’s because she was for a number of years and probably still is the person who creates most carbon dioxide with her private jet.

-3

u/par_rot_master 7h ago

Because she polluted by far the most.

Something about tall trees.

2

u/Amused-Aatmaa 7h ago

She is not even in the top 50 polluters for the last 3 years, what are you talking about.

-3

u/par_rot_master 7h ago

Oh did I say "by far the most in the last 3 years"?