54 chapter 2 these results generally provide robust evidence that we succeeded in developing a reliable and valid scale to assess perceived transilience associated with adaptive responses to climate change risks. Theoretical Implications Our research indicates that people perceive that climate change may not only have detrimental consequences for people (Fritze et al., 2008; Manning & Clayton, 2018), but offers opportunities for positive change as well. Specifically, we consistently found that people, on average, perceive they can be transilient in the face of climate change risks. This brings forward a novel understanding of human capacity to adapt to adversities such as climate change: rather than only ‘bouncing back’ and recovering (Bonanno, 2004; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), it seems that people also see opportunities for positive change (see Davoudi et al., 2013; O’Hare et al., 2016, for similar reasoning in other domains). This aligns with a prominent definition of climate change adaptation, which refers to both minimizing damage and finding beneficial opportunities (IPCC, 2014b). Some scholars have proposed that climate change reduces individual’s quality of life and does not elicit positive emotions (Doherty, 2018). However, we found that higher perceived transilience is associated with feeling more positive emotions about climate change and being more satisfied with one’s life. Additionally, higher perceived transilience seems positively associated with experiencing positive change because of dealing with climate change risks. At the same time, in most (but not all) studies we found that higher perceived transilience does not imply that people perceive less climate change risks or are less worried about climate change. Our results generally seem to indicate that transilience does not imply that climate change is no longer seen as an adversity; it also seems that, although people may feel negative affect about climate change, they may still feel that they can do something about it (i.e., they feel less impaired). Altogether, our research allows to broaden and bring a positive angle on the psychological responses to climate change (Reser & Swim, 2011). Future research is needed to examine under which circumstances transilience is associated with perceiving more/less climate change risks and with feeling more/less negative affect about climate change. Notably, we generally found support for the validity of the transilience scale over four different studies, which included population samples from different countries (i.e. US, the Netherlands, and UK), focusing on different climate change risks (i.e. climate change risks in general, risks of flooding caused by climate change, and perceived climate change risks at the community level) and adaptation behaviours (i.e. adaptive behaviour in general and more specific behaviours to reduce the risk of flooding;
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