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Myopic about climate change: Cognitive style, psychological distance, and environmentalism
Abstract and Figures
Recent literature shows a negative relation between psychological distance of climate change and pro-environmental behavioral intentions: when climate change is perceived as a distant phenomenon in time and space, people are less prone to worry and, thus, to act. The present study explored under which conditions psychological distance proved to be effective on ecological attitudes. More specifically the research explored the interaction between climate change psychological distance and individual’s cognitive style (holistic vs. analytic) on pro-environmental attitudes. Across two studies, the results consistently showed that psychological distance is strongly related to environmental concerns when individuals adopt an analytic cognitive style. By contrast, when individuals are in a holistic mindset, psychological distance proved to be less effective on ecological attitudes and behavioral intentions. Taken together, our findings have relevant practical implications for environmental politics and communication strategies.
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... Several studies have shown that a lower level of psychological distance is connected to actions to mitigate climate change and support for climate policies (Guillard et al., 2021;Sacchi et al., 2016;Singh, Zwinckle et al., 2017). However, these findings coexist with research that contradicts an alleged effect of psychological distance on supportive behaviors toward the fight against climate change (Chu & Yang, 2018;Rickard et al., 2016;S. ...
... As mentioned above, violent collective action is promoted through social media, and psychological distance has proven to be a good predictor of pro-environmental behaviors (Guillard et al., 2021;Sacchi et al., 2016). With the increase in violent environmental actions in recent years and the urgency of climate change, we find it necessary to create a model explaining how the use of social media can lead to environmental collective actions. ...
... Psychological distance is described as a predictor of environmental actions in different studies. Sacchi et al. (2016) found that commitment to the environment, pro-environmental attitudes, and the intention to develop climatefriendly behavior were negatively related to psychological distance. Jones et al. (2017) found that when comparing a group exposed to a video describing climate impacts at distant locations and a group exposed to a video describing climate impacts at nearby locations, the latter had lower scores on psychological distance, higher levels of concern about climate change, and greater intention to engage in climate change-mitigation actions. ...
This research aims to analyze the chain-mediated effect of the different types of psychological distances (social, temporal, spatial, and probability) and the variables of the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) on the relationship between the use of social media and violent environmental collective action. The study sample consisted of 650 university students ( M = 20.8, SD = 2.74) aged 18–35 years from Lima. Analyses were conducted by means of structural equation modeling (SEM) using the AMOS SPSS software, where a statistical model was performed for each type of psychological distance. The findings revealed two statistically significant paths that go from social media to violent environmental collective action, mediated, first, by each of the psychological distances and, second, by social identity and negative emotions (anger and fear). In addition, it was observed that only probability distance on its own acted as a mediator in the relationship between social media and violent environmental collective action. It was also observed that a path from social media to violent environmental collective action was mediated, first, by three types of distances (probability, spatial, and temporal) and, second, by participative efficacy.
... perceived psychological distance, efficacy, emotion, and legacy motive) the impact (e.g. Brügger et al., 2016;Ejelöv et al., 2018;Jones et al., 2017;Loy & Spence, 2020;Sacchi et al., 2016;Shrum, 2021;Yang et al., 2021). While other moderators and mediators have been examined in empirical research grounded in CLT on climate change communication, this section specifically focuses on the variables considered in relation to behavioral outcome variables such as pro-environmental intention and policy support. ...
... Moderator #3: cognitive thinking style Sacchi et al. (2016) showed that cognitive thinking style moderated the negative relationship between psychological distance and pro-environmental intention. Specifically, they found that the negative relationship was stronger among participants in the analytical thinking condition than those in the holistic thinking condition. ...
... Several variables have been found to moderate or mediate the effect of psychological distance on climate engagement (e.g. Brügger et al., 2016;Ejelöv et al., 2018;Jones et al., 2017;Loy & Spence, 2020;Sacchi et al., 2016;Shrum, 2021;Yang et al., 2021). ...
One major challenge in communicating climate change to the public is the prevailing perception of it as a psychologically distant and abstract issue, which often leads to a lack of action. To tackle this challenge, environmental scholars and professionals have employed Construal Level Theory (CLT) to reduce the psychological distance associated with climate change and foster a more immediate and tangible perception of its risks. This study presents a comprehensive review of empirical research conducted between 2010 and 2021 that examines climate change communication within the framework of CLT. The analysis encompasses 68 articles, and the review uncovers a significant research gap. While reducing psychological distance to climate change appears to enhance awareness and concern about the issue, it does not consistently translate into climate engagement, such as pro-environmental intentions or behaviors. The study explores potential explanations for this gap and suggests future research directions to address this issue effectively.
... Many scholars have proposed that a majority of people perceive climate change as psychologically distant, that is, as affecting faraway locations and unfolding in the (far) future (e.g., Jones et al., 5 Ho et al., 10 McDonald et al., 11 Griffioen et al., 13 Hochachka, 14 Lee et al., 15 Swim et al., 32 Sparkman et al., 34 Manning et al., 39 Kim and Ahn, 42 Brick et al., 43 Chen, 44 Duan et al., 45 Sacchi et al. 46 ). This assumption is, however, not supported by representative data from opinion polls of the last 5 years. ...
... Some cross-sectional studies indeed show that the more people perceive climate change as psychologically distant, the less likely they are to report engaging in climate-related behavior (or intentions to do so) and to support climate change policies. 5,41,46,[80][81][82][83][84][85] Yet, other studies find no significant relationship between perceptions of psychological distance and climate action. 38,44,[86][87][88] Within studies, mixed effects are also reported, with studies finding that some, but not all, dimensions of psychological distance are associated with climate action [89][90][91][92] or that psychological distance was associated with some, but not all, indicators of climate action. ...
... Based on the assumption that most people perceive climate change as psychologically distant and that this forms a key barrier to climate action, many have recommended proximizing climate change (i.e., reducing the psychological distance of climate change) as an important strategy to promote climate action. [5][6][7]9,17,19,46,101,102 Yet, our systematic search of experimental studies (see experimental procedures, correlational and experimental studies) shows that 25 out of 30 studies (Table 3) failed to find evidence that decreasing psychological distance of climate change increases climate action 5,17,19,23,31,33,39,41,45,82,92,94,101,[103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114] (see Figure 1). It is unlikely that these non-significant effects are due to a failure of the experimental manipulations, as different experimental Review procedures have been employed across studies to reduce psychological distance to climate change, and some studies confirmed that the manipulation did have its intended effect of making climate change appear psychologically closer (e.g., Jones et al., 5 Duan et al., 45 Loy and Spence, 101 Chu and Yang, 105 Rickard et al., 109 Schuldt et al., 111 Spence and Pidgeon 112 ). ...
... Phrasing of PD items differed between studies. Temporal distance sometimes referred to a concrete (though not uniform) number of years (Azadi et al., 2019;Zwickle, 2015), whereas other studies used relative frames, such as "distant future" (Chen, 2019) or "close in time" (Sacchi et al., 2016). Some items were ambiguous, for example, participants rating whether impacts were felt mostly close or mostly far away (Acharibasam & Anuga, 2018;Azadi et al., 2019;Chen, 2020;Gubler et al., 2019;Singh et al., 2017). ...
... On all dimensions, impacts were seen as quite distant. A. Keller et al. are impacts in space; Sacchi et al., 2016) can avoid this issue, but these ambiguities indicate that current PD measures reference a variety of different aspects and situations. One recent study models an approach to simplifying measurements (Fesenfeld & Rinscheid, 2021). ...
... Moderators, mediators, and predictors of psychological distance. Several studies found reduced PD was associated with higher concern (e.g., Chen, 2020;Sacchi et al., 2016;Spence et al., 2012). Occasionally, this relationship differed for different dimensions. ...
The construct of psychological distance has gained traction as an explanation of why climate change is difficult to act on; it often feels far removed, with impacts arising in remote locations to other people or in an uncertain future. However, recent studies and narrative reviews have pointed out inconsistencies in the conceptualisation, operationalisation and results regarding the psychological distance of climate change, with research evidently struggling to develop the construct and determine its place in explaining and promoting pro-environmental behaviour. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature aimed at building an evidence base on which to develop research on psychological distance. Following a systematic search of three databases, 73 records with 84 individual studies were identified, which measured or manipulated the concept in relation to climate change. We find that psychological distance in the context of climate change is a dynamic, context-specific, multidimensional construct, with a wide variety of approaches to measurement and manipulation. Current theorising (primarily Construal Level Theory) is insufficient in describing the diversity and complexity of distance in the climate-change context. Based on the reviewed studies, we give recommendations for the measurement and manipulation of the construct. However, our overarching suggestion is to focus on specific contexts in which distance plays a role in climate-change cognition and action, such as the perception of impacts, policy or behaviour. We discuss how describing distance within these contexts can help researchers to understand current findings, to disentangle different components of distance beliefs and to incorporate theory and insights from related perspectives.
... In this regard, it has been shown that several context-dependent variables elicit a specific cognitive mindset (e.g., the familiarity with the stimulus; one's mood; ad hoc experimental tasks; for a review, see Förster & Dannenberg, 2010). Indeed, numerous experimental studies temporarily and successfully manipulated and induced specific cognitive mindsets throughout the adoption of tasks that function as procedural priming (e.g., Navon's task, 1977;Förster & Dannenberg, 2010;Friedman et al., 2003;Sacchi et al., 2016). ...
... Throughout different operationalizations, recent research provided insights about the relevance of the cognitive mindset on environmental cognition (e.g., Davis & Stroink, 2015;Lezak & Thibodeau, 2016;Sacchi et al., 2016;Spaccatini et al., 2021). For instance, systems thinkers, people who hold a mindset based on interrelation among elements (i.e., for a detailed definition, see Davis & Stroink, 2015), possessed a stronger sense of connection with nature, perceived the environmental risk as higher, expressed more support to sustainable policies, and attributed greater value to the ecosystem than non-systems thinkers (Davis & Stroink, 2015;Lezak & Thibodeau, 2016). ...
... For instance, systems thinkers, people who hold a mindset based on interrelation among elements (i.e., for a detailed definition, see Davis & Stroink, 2015), possessed a stronger sense of connection with nature, perceived the environmental risk as higher, expressed more support to sustainable policies, and attributed greater value to the ecosystem than non-systems thinkers (Davis & Stroink, 2015;Lezak & Thibodeau, 2016). Sacchi et al. (2016) hypothesized that different cognitive mindsets would be differently sensitive to environmental risk's psychological distance. Accordingly, the authors demonstrated, by both assessing and manipulating cognitive mindset, that the closer the climate change was, the more analytical (vs. ...
Research literature about the environmental spillover effect produced mixed results, revealing that an initial pro-environmental behavior (PEB) is likely to promote either other PEBs (i.e., positive spillover) or pro-environmental inactions and harming behaviors (i.e., negative spillover). Such inconsistency suggests a possible crucial role of moderating variables. In two experimental studies (N Study 1 = 141, N Study 2 = 124), we investigated whether the recall of past environmental behavior (water-saving vs. water-wasting) affects future intention to perform PEBs (Study 1) and actual PEBs (Study 2), depending on participants’ cognitive mindset (manipulated in Study 1 and measured in Study 2). Results showed that the cognitive mindset is a significant moderator of spillover effects. Compared to a holistic one, an analytical mindset is more likely to result in a greater willingness to engage in future PEBs (Study 1) and actual PEB (Study 2) when past PEB is salient. The main contributions of the studies, limitations and possible future research directions are discussed.
... This indifference may stem from the fact that climate change is an abstract, complex (Nicholson-Cole, 2005) and psychologically distant risk (Brügger et al., 2015). That is, people tend to perceive climate change as an issue that involves high level of uncertainty, affects primarily future generations, people in other social groups, or other geographically distant locations (Leiserowitz, 2005;Sacchi et al., 2016;Spence et al., 2012). Construal-level theory (CLT) explains that when people's perceived psychological distance of an issue increases, they tend to represent that issue in a more abstract way, at a higher level of mental construal (Trope & Liberman, 2010). ...
... Furthermore, construal-level mindsets have been studied as moderating variables in the context of climate change (Sacchi et al., 2016). Therefore, we ask how construal level could moderate the effect of sociopsychological factors on people's climate change-related attitudinal and behavioral responses. ...
... A growing body of literature has documented that people's environmental concern and behaviors are culture-bound. For example, individualistic cultures in the Western world may encourage analytic thinking, while members of collectivistic cultures may be more interested in holistic thinking; these differences can play a role in environmental perceptions (Miyamoto et al., 2006;Sacchi et al., 2016). We urge other researchers to explore how the construal-level cognitive process can interact with cultural aspects to influence people from around the world. ...
Relying on construal-level theory, we experimentally test how the level of concreteness and abstraction of climate change imagery affects climate change responses among a diverse sample of U.S. adults ( N = 448). Results show that concrete visual messaging practices cannot directly lead to increased level of concern or behavioral intentions. Instead, they may backfire for conservatives, less-efficacious people, and people who are low in proenvironmental values. Our findings contribute to the effective climate change visual communication literature by incorporating a construal-level perspective, while also offering practical implications regarding how to use visuals more effectively to engage the public with climate change.
... Accordingly, despite the scientific agreement about the objective and severe risk posed by climate change and climate-related extremes, people still seem to assign little weight to them (e.g., Azadi et al., 2019;Carmi & Kimhi, 2015;Hoogendoorn et al., 2020;Markowitz & Shariff, 2012;Sacchi et al., 2016;Weber, 2006). Thus, people's perception of risk does not correspond to the objective risk assessed by technical experts that might, as a consequence, increase. ...
... Recent studies highlighted the role of cognitive styles in shaping environmental cognition and behaviors (e.g., Davis & Stroink, 2015;Lezak & Thiboudeau, 2016;Sacchi et al., 2016). Individuals whose mindset focuses on the interrelation among elements feel more connected with the natural environment, perceive higher risks associated with climate change, and express greater support to sustainable policies compared to non-system thinkers (Davis & Stroink, 2015;Lezak & Thiboudeau, 2016). ...
... *p < .05 Lezak & Thiboudeau, 2016;Sacchi et al., 2016) participants' holism was a significant predictor of the sense of connection with the environment. Literature demonstrated that holism correlates with sensitivity to environmental issues and environmental behavior (e.g., Davis et al., 2009;Dutcher et al., 2007;Mayer & Frantz, 2004). ...
Risk perception of natural hazards has been widely studied as one of the potential determinants of people's behaviors and behavioral intentions. However, individual differences can also affect risk perception. The present work focused on the link between an individual cognitive mindset (i.e., level of holism) and flood‐risk perception. It also assessed the consequences of such a link on public and personal mitigation intentions, taking into account the sense of connection with the environment, the psychological distance from the adverse event, and the role played by previous personal experience with flooding. Our study (N = 191) showed that the individual cognitive style predicted risk perceptions and personal (for both experienced and no‐experience groups) and public (only for experienced group) mitigation intentions, through the mediation of the sense of connection with the environment and the psychological distance from the adverse event. Results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for public communication and policies about environmental hazards.
... They found that high psychological distance was associated with lower sustainable behavior intentions due to lower concerns about climate change. Subsequently, other studies have tended to corroborate a negative association between the psychological distance of climate change and intentions to engage in pro-environmental behaviors, while further exploring its connection with variables related to risk perception and emotional reactivity (Carmi and Kimhi 2015, Sacchi et al 2016, Singh et al 2017. Despite these initial consistent findings, the many attempts to experimentally reduce the psychological distance of climate change to foster engagement in the issue have produced more mixed results (e.g., significant effects: Hart and Nisbet 2012, Scannell and Gifford 2013, no significant effect: Brügger et al 2016, Jones et al 2017, Schuldt et al 2018, Kim and Ahn 2019. ...
... To explain the inconsistent effects of experimental manipulations on responses to climate change, researchers have first questioned the fundamental assumption that proximity to climate change has a direct and systematic influence on decisions and actions (Brügger et al 2015, McDonald et al 2015. Brügger et al (2015) initially proposed that the psychological distance of climate change would rather influence the attention paid to high-level (i.e., abstract) or low-level (i.e., concrete) information, prompting many researchers to explore this strategy in relation to other variables (e.g., Brügger et al 2016, Sacchi et al 2016, Chu 2022. Subsequently, researchers have also questioned the applicability of psychological distance theoretical framework (multidimensional, transientK) to understand climate change perception and have therefore proposed approaching distance to climate change through other related concepts (e.g., temporal discounting or selftranscendence in Keller et al 2022) or turning to alternative theories (see Brügger 2020 for a discussion of alternative frameworks). ...
Proximizing climate change’ is a widely used strategy for promoting public engagement in environmental communication. However, experimental manipulations of psychological distance often fail to substantially reduce the perceived distance of climate change, and, do not systematically affect responses to this issue. In this study, we test the effectiveness of a new proximizing method that combines two strategies on a sample of French students (N = 349). First, we communicated about the immediate (vs. distant) consequences of climate change. Then, participants were asked to relate these consequences to their own direct experiences to accentuate the level of distance induced (versus a no-accentuation condition). We found that presenting proximal events reduces the perceived distance of climate change, but only when proximity is accentuated. This combined method also leads to greater risk perception, stronger emotional response, and increased engagement in mitigation, as it influences the perceived distance. Our results suggest that proximizing climate change is a valuable communication strategy in environmental campaigns when psychological closeness to climate change is made relevant to individuals’ personal experience.
... Jones et al., 2017), pro-environmental attitudes (e.g. Sacchi et al., 2016), pro-environmental intentions (e.g. Soliman et al., 2018), and support for adaptation policies (e.g. ...
... This approach posits that psychologically close perceptions of climate change lead to low-level construals (i.e. concrete and specific perceptions), which are expected to encourage climate engagement (Jones et al., 2017;Sacchi et al., 2016;Soliman et al., 2018). However, climate anxiety appears to be linked with psychologically distant perceptions, characterized by vicarious experiences (i.e. ...
Research investigating the effectiveness of proximizing climate change, guided by Construal Level Theory (CLT), has produced mixed results regarding its ability to foster climate engagement. This study aimed to clarify these mixed findings by examining the roles of climate anxiety and efficacy perception as potential moderating factors. Using data from 1,045 adults, a double-moderated-mediation model was tested, focusing on the interplay between perceived psychological distance, construal level, climate anxiety, and efficacy perception. The results revealed that construal level fully mediated the relationship between perceived psychological distance and pro-environmental intention. Furthermore, the data showed that both climate anxiety and efficacy perception amplified this relationship. Specifically, participants with higher climate anxiety tended to construe psychologically closer climate risks more concretely and distant risks more abstractly. Participants with higher efficacy perception adopted more concrete, lower-level construals when viewing climate change as an imminent threat. However, when both climate anxiety and efficacy perceptions were considered, climate anxiety attenuated the influence of efficacy perception. The study concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for enhancing the effectiveness of climate change communication.
... Translating awareness of existing environmental issues into concern and a positive attitude towards adopting pro-environmental behavior to solve these issues is thus a thorny issue. Multiple studies have consistently suggested that a perceived proximal psychological distance of environmental issues was strongly related to environmental concerns and perceived severity of the issues (Brügger et al., 2016;Geng et al., 2018;Sacchi et al., 2016;Singh et al., 2017;Spence et al., 2011). Additionally, perceived proximal psychological distance predicted increased positive attitude towards environmentalism (Sacchi et al., 2016), support for environmental policies (Singh et al., 2017) and more pro-environmental behavioral intentions (Wang et al., 2019). ...
... Multiple studies have consistently suggested that a perceived proximal psychological distance of environmental issues was strongly related to environmental concerns and perceived severity of the issues (Brügger et al., 2016;Geng et al., 2018;Sacchi et al., 2016;Singh et al., 2017;Spence et al., 2011). Additionally, perceived proximal psychological distance predicted increased positive attitude towards environmentalism (Sacchi et al., 2016), support for environmental policies (Singh et al., 2017) and more pro-environmental behavioral intentions (Wang et al., 2019). For example, when air pollution was perceived as psychologically proximal, it promoted greater positive attitudes towards air pollution prevention, stronger subjective norms of environmental protection and further increased pro-environmental behavior intentions (Cheng et al., 2021). ...
Environmental issues are major global risks that call for urgent pro-environmental actions. The current literature suggested that many perceive environmental issues as psychologically distant. This perception is considered as one important psychological barrier that limits the public from adopting sustainable pro-environmental actions. The perception of environmental issues has ignited discussion of Construal Level Theory (CLT) as a theoretical framework to understand how perceived psychological distance influences attitude towards environmental protection. Our review suggested that the public may perceive environmental issues as psychologically distant on both social and spatial dimensions. We proposed that optimism bias might be one of the reasons for this. Our review highlighted the important role of psychological proximity in arousing concerns and eliciting positive attitudes toward the efforts of addressing existing environmental issues. Inducing a proximal psychological distance may elicit stronger positive attitudes towards pro-environmental behavior intention. We discussed moderators including efficacy of policy and social pressure that elucidate the role of psychological distance on attitude. Skepticism may cause one to perceive environmental issues as psychologically distant, reducing support for environmental policies. We recommended CLT as a useful theoretical framework to improve current methods on motivating and promoting actual pro-environmental behavior. We proposed that narratives of personal experiences and objective scientific reports could complement each other in communicating environmental risks. Many are often not keenly aware of environmental issues. For this reason, using a variety of approaches and tools to proximise environmental issues is important and beneficial in raising environmental concerns and promoting sustainable actions.
... Further, three studies reported no significant effect of an abstract-concrete frame alone (Erell et al., 2018;Sacchi et al., 2016). These studies suggest that the effectiveness of an abstract or concrete frame depends on moderating variables such as motivation for energy saving, guilt and/or locus of control. ...
... Bertoldo, 2013;Brügger et al., 2016;Carmi and Kimhi, 2015;Chen, 2019Chen, , 2020Chen and Chiu, 2016;Costa Pinto et al., 2020;Goldsmith et al., 2016;Grazzini et al., 2018;Griffioen et al., 2019;Haden et al., 2012;Hamilton-Webb et al., 2017;Huff et al., 2017;Ibrahim and Al-Ajlouni, 2018;Line et al., 2016;Mir et al., 2016;Ramirez et al., 2015;Reczek et al., 2018;Ryoo et al., 2017;Sacchi et al., 2016;Schill and Shaw, 2016;Schuldt et al., 2018;Spence et al., 2012;Spence and Pidgeon, 2010;van Dam and Fischer, 2015; Wang et al., 2020;White et al., 2011;Wolske et al., 2018;Yang et al., 2015;Yu et al., 2017; al., 2014 34 Prospect theory Bertolotti and Catellani, 2014; Chang et al., 2015; DeGolia et al., 2019; Grazzini et al., 2018; Spence and Pidgeon, 2010; Thomas et al., 2019; Wolske et al., 2018 7 Protection motivation theory Chen et al., 2020; Hunter and Röös, 2016; Ibrahim and Al-Ajlouni, 2018 3 ...
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic review of the literature relating to message framing and its effectiveness in persuading consumers to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviour, which is a form of pro-social behaviour. Specifically, this paper focuses on three types of message framing: positive–negative, self–other and abstract–concrete.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on a systematic review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework identifying 108 articles published relating to message framing and environmental sustainability between 2005 and 2020. Descriptive analysis of the data was undertaken in combination with a thematic approach.
Findings
The results demonstrate that single frames do not reliably increase sustainable consumer behaviour. Instead, the use of two message frames is more consistently effective. However, there is some disparity in relation to the combined effects of two message frames. The research also identifies that the use of three combined message frames is underexplored in the existing literature.
Research limitations/implications
Social marketing and consumer psychology researchers have explored many types of message framing. This study focuses on three common types. Also, the review is limited to valence framing. The authors recognise that visual aspects of message frames also determine the effectiveness of messaging. Another limitation is that only empirical studies published between 2005 and 2020 were reviewed.
Originality/value
Past review papers related to the impact of messaging on sustainable consumer behaviour either focus on one type of message framing, such as the positive–negative frame, or did not categorise message framing into different types. The current review focuses on three types of message framing that have been examined separately and in combination in the literature. Based on the findings, this study proposes a synthesised theoretical framework for future research.
... It was found that reducing psychological distance promotes climate change-related concerns and willingness to act (Jones et al. 2016). However, as a lot of cognitive, experiential, and socio-cultural factors are driving climate change behaviors (Van der Linden 2015), other individual characteristics (e.g., cognitive style, Sacchi et al. 2016;Hart and Nisbet 2012) may affect the role of psychological distance. In other words, a reduction in psychological distance does not always lead to increased concern or behavioral intention (Brügger et al. 2016;Schuldt et al. 2018). ...
... Another possible explanation for the conflicting results in CLT and climate change communication is that construal level may interact with other important factors to influence people's attitudes and behavioral intentions (e.g., cognitive style, Sacchi et al. 2016). One possible factor is emotion. ...
This study examines how the level of concreteness and abstraction of climate change imagery influences people’s responses via emotional valence, and how such effect is moderated by people’s visual literacy. Findings show that concrete images promote negative feelings, which subsequently reduce people’s perceived distance to climate change, and encourage concern and behavioral intention. Less visually literate people are more influenced by the visuals’ effect and are more motivated by concrete images. Our study integrates theoretical perspectives from construal level, emotional valence, and visual literacy, while also offering practical advice regarding how to effectively visualize climate change to engage a wide audience.
... We chose this subscale because it captures the differential ability of thinking to integrate incongruent characteristics of an object into a cohesive whole. Beyond the convenience of having a shorter measure of individual differences in thinking style [36,37], previous research has relied on this particular subscale as the dominant measure for evaluating cognitive style-relevant outcomes [38][39][40][41][42]. Participants indicated how much they agreed with items such as "The whole, rather than its parts, should be considered in order to understand a phenomenon," and "It is more important to pay attention to the whole than its parts" on a 7-point Likert-type scale anchored at 1 ("Strongly disagree") to 7 ("Strongly agree"). ...
... Second, this study was based on participants' self-report measures. Future studies could manipulate thinking style [40,41] and mixed emotions [30,69,70] in order to capture the explanatory nature of the phenomenon. Third, regarding the thinking style measure, instead of including the full Analysis-Holism Scale we used one of its subscales (i.e., locus of attention). ...
The present research examined how individuals’ thinking style (holistic vs. analytic) is associated with the way they deal with contradictory information and whether experiencing mixed emotions can mediate this relationship. Participants first completed the thinking style measure and then were exposed to two contradictory pieces of information (Studies 1 and 2). In study 2, we also measured the experience of mixed emotions to test the mediating role of this variable. Across two studies, we found that individuals with a holistic thinking style were more able to reconcile contradictory information compared to individuals with an analytic thinking style. Study 2 showed that the relationship between thinking style and dealing with contradiction was mediated by the experience of mixed emotions. This research extends previous findings on confrontation of contradiction and mixed emotions by using an individual-differences rather than a cultural-differences approach, and establishes mixed emotions as a plausible mediating variable.
... But studies also found that reducing people's psychological distances did not necessarily encourage higher intention to engage in climate change friendly behaviors, such as choosing a car that gets good fuel mileage or repainting one's (future) house in a lighter color (less heat absorption in the summer) (Brügger et al., 2015(Brügger et al., , 2016) and they did not always encourage higher support for climate change policies (Rickard et al., 2016;Schuldt et al., 2018). Instead, the relationship between psychological distance and engagement intention may be affected or moderated by a variety of other factors, such as self-efficacy (McDonald et al., 2015), response-efficacy (Singh et al., 2017), and individuals' cognitive style (Sacchi et al., 2016). ...
... abstract or concrete thinking). It is thus easier and more accurate to prime people with abstract or concrete construals rather than distance frames to observe construal level effect on decision-making, as evidenced by prior psychological research (Dhar and Kim, 2007;Sacchi et al., 2016). Documenting such correlation will allow future studies to focus on frames of construal of climate change, which have greater theoretical validity and fewer accuracy and ethical challenges. ...
Recent studies have found mixed evidence about the role of psychological distance of climate change in people’s engagement with the issue. To gain more clarity in the application of construal level theory of psychological distance in climate change communication, we used two online experiments to investigate how abstract and concrete construals of climate change imagery may differentially influence people’s perceived psychological distances to the issue. Specifically, we clarified the conceptual differences between two subdimensions (i.e. egocentric and nonegocentric) of psychological distance and showed how the two types differ in climate change communication. Findings also showed that concrete construals of climate change images made participants estimate less egocentric geographical, temporal, and social distances to climate change, which led to greater mitigation behavioral intentions. But this construal-level effect did not exist when participants estimated the nonegocentric distances – the perceived distances between climate change and others (i.e. other locations, other people).
... Nevertheless, conclusions about its concrete effect are sometimes conflicting (McDonald et al. 2015;Sacchi et al. 2016;Schuldt et al. 2018). Some studies argue that these discrepancies are due to the omission of third variables which moderate the effect of psychological distance from climate change on support for mitigation and adaptation policies, such as people's type of cognitive style (Sacchi et al. 2016) or the perceived response efficacy of the policy (McDonald et al. 2015;Singh et al. 2017). ...
... Nevertheless, conclusions about its concrete effect are sometimes conflicting (McDonald et al. 2015;Sacchi et al. 2016;Schuldt et al. 2018). Some studies argue that these discrepancies are due to the omission of third variables which moderate the effect of psychological distance from climate change on support for mitigation and adaptation policies, such as people's type of cognitive style (Sacchi et al. 2016) or the perceived response efficacy of the policy (McDonald et al. 2015;Singh et al. 2017). Other studies suggest that the traditional approach to psychological distance through the construal level theory does not hold in climate change issues (Wang et al. 2019). ...
The increasing social consciousness about the causes and consequences of climate change has not led to a correspondingly high support for concrete mitigation or adaptation policies. Thus, more research is needed about the factors influencing citizen’s support for such climate change policies. In this study, we explore the effects on Spaniards’ support for one mitigation policy (car policy) and one adaptation policy (water policy) of five attitudinal factors: government response efficacy beliefs, people’s feeling of responsibility to mitigate climate change, personal self-efficacy beliefs, people’s disposition to resist change and psychological distance from climate change. We use data from an online survey implemented in the Netquest opt-in panel in Spain (N = 2290). We use structural equation modelling to control for spurious effects and test the fit of the model. Moreover, estimates are corrected for measurement errors. The results reveal that the most important factor affecting Spaniards’ support for both mitigation and adaptation policies is the perceived government response efficacy. Furthermore, we identified relevant differences regarding the importance of the above-mentioned five attitudinal factors depending on the climate change policy studied. More precisely, while government response efficacy and people’s feeling of responsibility to mitigate climate change have a direct effect on support for both policies, personal self-efficacy and people’s resistance to change only affect support for the mitigation policy directly. On the contrary, psychological distance to climate change only has a direct effect on support for the adaptation policy. Our results provide new insights into the causal mechanisms behind citizens’ support for climate change policies.
... (2016) examined the association between cultural worldviews, climate change risk perceptions, and how often participants performed 20 climate change mitigation actions. Notably, some studies measured intentions, not actual performance, of proenvironmental behaviour (Masson & Fritsche, 2014;Sacchi et al., 2016). Also noteworthy is that a few articles focused on a specific domain of proenvironmental behaviour rather than proenvironmental behaviours in general, such as meat consumption in Rees et al. (2018) and energy use in Swim and Becker (2012). ...
... A few studies considered the justicerelated issues behind human responses to climate change (Clayton, 2018;Clayton et al., 2013;McKinney & Fulkerson, 2015;Walker et al., 2015). Several studies examined people's subjective or psychological distance from climate change (Bashir et al., 2014;Leviston et al., 2014;Sacchi et al., 2016). Several studies situated people's responses to climate change in terms of how they viewed future generations and the future world (Bain et al., 2013;Barnett et al., 2019;Tonn & Conrad, 2007). ...
There is a strong scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is happening and that its impacts can put both ecological and human systems in jeopardy. Social psychology, the scientific study of human behaviours in their social and cultural settings, is an important tool for understanding how humans interpret and respond to climate change. In this article, we offered a systematic review of the social psychological literature of climate change. We sampled 130 studies on climate change or global warming from 80 articles published in journals indexed under the “Psychology, social” category of Journal Citation Reports. Based on this sample, we observe that social psychologists have produced an impressive canon of research on this pressing topic, the strengths of which include diversity of research designs, outcome variables, and theoretical angles. However, there are some gaps in this literature, including weak presence of authors and data from non‐Western, developing, and nondemocratic societies, lack of cross‐cultural comparisons, reliance on young and Amazon MTurk samples, lack of attention to some crucial outcome variables, and overemphasis on intrapersonal and intrapsychic processes. We recommend that future social psychological research on climate change needs to broaden geographical and demographic representation, examine study outcomes other than mitigation behaviour, and adopt more “social” theoretical perspectives. We also offer suggestions as to how these needs can be addressed.
... ChatGPT's attraction to students in part may lie in the fact that it can break down complex topics such as climate change. For example, climate change may seem distant and complex to some students because some of the worst climate impacts are geographically and temporally removed from their lives (Sacchi, et al., 2016). The generative nature of the site may allow it to offer more straightforward and customized explanations. ...
Educators and students are increasingly using a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to learn about climate change. Others speculate that learning will be revolutionized forever with the mainstreaming of AI-based sites like ChatGPT. Less is known about the quality of AI prompt responses about climate change. This study examines 100 ChatGPT climate change prompts to examine what exploratory themes emerge from climate response queries. The results show the presence of the following themes within ChatGPT responses: passive learning, lack of transparency, desensitization and low environmental concern language. Climate educators, students, and parents who are curious about ChatGPT’s functionality and the accuracy of its responses on climate change may find the results useful.
... In turn, it is likely that the personal experience with drought elicited a growing willingness to take action and a greater support for both low-cost and high-cost drought risk management measures. Accumulating research have also demonstrated that personal experience with climate-related hazards has the potential to mitigate individuals' psychological distance from climate change and thus galvanize climate action, through citizens' enhanced engagement in climate change mitigation and/or adaptation behaviors or support climate policies (e.g., Ref. [88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95]). However, we argue that our findings must be interpreted thoughtfully, as the effects of personal encounters with climate-related hazards on individuals' behavior is proven to suffer from a decay effect, by diminishing over time [84]. ...
... Sixth, the current studies were based on participants' holistic thinking self-report measures to assess chronic individual differences in this cognitive style. Future research could manipulate holistic thinking to establish a causal link in dealing with contradiction and beyond (see Sacchi et al., 2016;Santos et al., 2023;Smith & Redden, 2020, for successful manipulations of holism). In addition, the self-reported certainty in Study 1a and Study 2 was a single-item measure. ...
The present research examined whether consideration of individuals' certainty in their holism can enhance the ability of this individual difference to predict how they respond to contradiction‐relevant outcomes. Across four studies, participants first completed a standardized measure of holistic‐analytic thinking. Then, they rated how certain they were in their responses to the holism scale or were experimentally induced to feel high or low certainty. Next, participants were exposed to dialectical proverbs (Study 1a and 1b), to a counter‐attitudinal change induction (Study 2), or to a paradigm of attitudinal ambivalence (Study 3). Results revealed that participants with higher certainty in their holistic thinking exhibited higher preference for dialectical proverbs (Study 1a and 1b), changed their attitude less following a counter‐attitudinal task (Study 2) and showed weaker correspondence between objective and subjective ambivalence (Study 3). Beyond examining new domains and discovering novel findings, the present work was designed to be the first to show moderation of previously identified effects in the domain of holistic thinking and responses to contradiction.
... In studies assessing trends in charitable giving, distance between donators and a variety of charitable causes has been shown to predict not only how people choose to donate their money (Berman et al., 2018a) but how participants rate the moral admirability of someone else's decision to donate (Law et al., 2022). Similar relationships have been observed between distance and how people perceive and respond to pressing moral issues such as climate change (Sacchi et al., 2016;Spence et al., 2012). ...
Antisocial behaviour online remains a pervasive and persistent thorn in the side of social media platforms. Understanding what drives bad behaviour online is an important step towards responding to the issue, and calls for an interdisciplinary understanding of a range of complex and interrelated factors. Discrepancies in moral judgement between online and offline contexts is an example of one such factor which is well supported within the theoretical literature but remains relatively underexplored from an empirical perspective. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature using a mixed-methods, vignette-based approach spread across three studies. Study 1 was a quantitative pilot study which sought to test the efficacy of a vignette-based approach to the topic. Participants (N = 207) were recruited using CloudResearch to respond to 12 pairs of online/offline vignettes using a range of Likert scales designed to test the perceived situational equivalence of the online/offline vignette pairs. The five pairs of vignettes which had the closest equivalence in the minds of participants were then carried over to Study 2, which used a quantitative, between participants (N = 378) approach to identify the extent of discrepancies in moral wrongness, moral character, moral punishment/reward, and social harm across the online/offline scenarios. Study 2 participants were recruited in Wellington, New Zealand, and also responded to a measure of online disinhibition. The primary quantitative results revealed less consistent, and smaller discrepancies in online/offline moral judgement than were initially predicted by the project's theoretical framework. Study 3 was a qualitative study which sought to contextualise the prior quantitative findings. 22 volunteers participated in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews where they had a chance to compare and rationalise their responses to a range of online/offline vignettes. Thematic analysis revealed a number of recurring themes across participant responses including the role of interpersonal distance, the ambiguity of mediated communication, and consequences and repercussions of antisocial behaviour in online/offline contexts. Overall, the findings of these three studies revealed that while some online/offline discrepancies in moral judgement do exist, these discrepancies tend to be highly context-specific, and generally limited in frequency and extent. A contrast between the quantitative and qualitative findings also highlighted some tension between empirical insight and theoretical/self-reported perspectives on this topic. 3
... The potential reason could be that analytical (vs. holistic) thinkers perceive a greater sense of connection with the environment, have more positive attitudes towards environmentalism, and hence pro-environmental intentions 32 . However, there is also a stream of studies that found cognitive sophistication may magnify politically biased processing 33 . ...
The existing research on the associations between climate change-related events and mental well-being outcomes warrants several gaps. These studies either used a mono approach such as cross-sectional surveys or focused on clinical mental health outcomes. Moreover, the underlying mechanism channelling changing climate and real-time emotional well-being as well as their pro-environmental action were seldom studied. This study aimed to address these gaps by integrating multiple data sources, including social media posts about climate change on Weibo (n = 76,514), regional meteorological data (n(records) = 216,476), and regional vulnerability data in China. This study proposed and tested a novel mechanism linking meteorological factors and emotional well-being through three cognitive responses (thinking styles, social affiliations, and somatosensory experiences), and explored their relationships with individuals’ pro-environmental tendencies. Additionally, this study examined the moderating role of regional vulnerability and seasonal effects in the impact of climate change on public emotional well-being. The results revealed that extreme hot days and hotter temperatures were associated with more negative emotional well-being and lower pro-environmental tendencies and that these effects were mediated by individuals’ analytical-intuitive thinking style, social affiliations, and somatosensory experiences and moderated by seasons and regional population density. The implications of these findings for climate change communication and intervention were discussed, emphasizing the role of cognitive responses of the public to enhance coping abilities for climate change and promote pro-environmental behaviours.
... Some individual differences in attentional styles and variables have already been associated with climate change attitudes and perceptions. For example, individuals possessing a global-to-local attentional style, as measured by the Navon task, tend to hold higher beliefs in the existence of climate change [86]. This individual preference for global or local perceptual styles has been associated with differences in multisensory integration, which might bias attention either towards detail or towards a more holistic perception [87]. ...
One significant obstacle to gaining a widespread awareness of the ongoing climate change is the nature of its manifestations in relation to our perception: climate change effects are gradual, distributed, and sometimes seemingly contradictory. These features result in a lag in collective climate action and sometimes foster climate skepticism and climate denial. While the literature on climate change perception and belief has thoroughly explored its sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects, research on the potential contribution of psychophysiological factors remains scarce. In this perspective paper, we outline evidence and arguments for the involvement of psychophysiological systems such as thermoception, hygroreception, and interoception in modulating climate change awareness. We discuss psychophysiological mechanisms of climate change awareness in animals and humans, as well as possible sources of individual variance in climate change perception. We conclude by suggesting novel research questions which would be worthwhile to pursue in future studies.
... Studies considering TCL have been conducted on several different countries and regions of the world, including Pakistan [13,14], Italy [15], England [16], Germany [17], the United States [18], the southwestern United Kingdom [19] and Southern Africa [20]. Combining climate perceptions with the psychological distance approach, these studies provide results that demonstrate that the more temporally, spatially and socially close the interviewees are in terms of how they view the phenomenon, the more willing they are to accept and participate in actions to mitigate and combat the effects of climate change. ...
Climate changes have become undisputed, as have their consequences for global ecosystems and mankind. The coastal areas are among the most affected areas on the planet due to their geographical location. The effects suffered by coastal areas can render the residing populations homeless, as well as compromise the continuity of the history and culture of these environments. The Marine Extractive Reserve of the city of Soure (coastal area of eastern Amazonia) stands out for housing populations that have developed an intimate relationship with nature and have knowledge that can explain people's perception of climate changes. In this context, this study investigated how local residents perceive climate change and its consequences considering different temporal and spatial scales. To this end, questionnaires were developed and applied using a 5-point Likert scale. Our results indicate that perception is shaped by socioeconomic and demographic factors, and that they are perceived on different time scales and geographic space. These findings reflect the awareness-raising efforts of the management body of this Conservation Unit and the local knowledge, derived from the relationship of the residents with the natural environment, which, together, provided the population with assertive information that favor a better understanding of this phenomenon.
... Given that much of the SLE literature also seeks to examine what experiences could instill empathy or care for the environment in individuals, literature on disengagement on climate change may be good to bring into conversation with SLE work. Psychological distance is a key construct that scholars examine when it comes to investigating apathy and disengagement on climate change (Spence et al., 2012;Sacchi et al., 2016;Jones et al., 2017). ...
Introduction
We use the term “environmentalists” to describe the people who are highly and actively engaged and involved in environmental issues like climate change. Environmentalists consistently advocate, research, or volunteer to do the work needed to address environmental challenges. Factors that drive contemporary environmentalists remain understudied.
Methods
We, therefore, ask: what formative experiences drive environmentalists on climate change and other environmental problems at present? We frame this exploration through the significant life experiences (SLE) literature, which examines people and environmental pathways. We also ask: how do feelings of perceptual/actual distance or closeness to environmental threats and climate change shape a person’s decision to become an environmentalist? We anchor this query to the psychological distance (PD) literature that explores how people perceive external phenomena and the role distance plays in their conception. To answer both questions, we use qualitative methods and draw on 33 interviews with environmentalists involved in environmental protection work for an average of 91 h in the past 4 weeks.
Results
We find that environmentalists spoke about several formative experiences broadly consistent with what has been documented in the SLE literature. Traumatic experiences were especially influential for our sample of environmentalists. Our findings also reveal that PD, especially social, plays a role in the lives of environmentalists.
Discussion
Study findings could help scholars and practitioners deepen their understanding of contemporary environmentalists. Practitioners, in particular, could use this knowledge to help environmentalists by providing them with tailored resources and support.
... Estos problemas globales, además son en muchos casos percibidos como lejanos tanto en el espacio como en el tiempo. Esta "distancia psicológica" impulsa a la inactividad, ya que muchos individuos consideran que no tienen influencia en dichos problemas (Sacchi, Riva y Aceto, 2016;García-Mira, Real y Romay, 2005). Por ello, es necesario acercar los problemas globales al contexto local. ...
Los retos ambientales a los que nos enfrentamos requieren un cambio de comportamiento de las sociedades actuales y la educación puede jugar un papel muy importante en la estimulación de dicho cambio. Para diseñar programas educativos que impulsen un cambio de comportamiento hacia uno más pro-ambiental, es necesario analizar los factores que pueden determinar el comportamiento ambiental de las personas. Este trabajo pretende avanzar en la descripción de los factores que influyen en la conducta y toma de decisiones pro-ambientales a partir de una encuesta a personas en formación de diferentes edades. Los resultados mostraron que la conducta y toma de decisiones ambientales parece estar ligada a factores no necesariamente relacionados con el nivel de conocimiento, como pudiera ser el componente afectivo. Finalmente, se proponen estrategias para estimular la creación de vínculos afectivos con el ambiente y su problemática que contribuyan al desarrollo de una conducta pro-ambiental.
... Several studies support the assertion that reducing psychological distance encourages pro-environmental attitudes, policy support, and personal engagement for the environment [23][24][25]. Due to the considerable psychological distance involved in climate change approaches [16,17] and managers' biases toward short-term, smaller-scale, and simplified considerations [15,[26][27][28][29], managers tend to limit sustainability practices to a superficial implementation in most organizations. ...
Despite some improvements and increasing social pressures, most organizations seem to be stagnating in a superficial implementation of sustainability practices despite the accumulation of climate change consequences. Research on corporate sustainability has shown that external pressures and psychological factors influence managers’ environmental decisions. However, these psychological factors have been undertheorized in the management research field. The concept of psychological distance has shown promising results in studying environmental behaviors. This concept is rooted in the construal level theory and is defined as the subjective experience of feeling that something is close or far away from the self, the here and the now. Therefore, it represents a relevant path for exploration in research on corporate sustainability. The main goals of this integrative review are to explore how the concept of psychological distance has been employed in research on corporate sustainability and to explore related concepts from this research field. Additionally, concepts that are related to the four dimensions of psychological distance (i.e., temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical) are critically discussed. The links between these concepts and their impacts on sustainability endeavors within organizations are then visually presented through a conceptual map, which forms the main contribution of this review. Further theoretical contributions are presented, the implications for managers are discussed, and future research avenues are proposed.
/An abstract-video of the article is available at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-3lhecvQFI&t=4s
... It was found that reducing psychological distance has merit in promoting people's climate change-related concerns and willingness to act (Evans et al. 2014;Jones et al. 2016). However, studies also argued that other factors (e.g., individuals' cognitive style, Sacchi et al. 2016;Hart and Nisbet 2012) may affect or moderate such relationship -a reduction in psychological distance does not always lead to increased concern or behavioral intention (Brügger et al. 2016;Schuldt et al. 2018). ...
This study examines how the level of concreteness and abstraction of climate change imagery influences people’s responses via emotional valence, and how such effect is moderated by people’s visual literacy. Findings show that concrete images promote negative feelings, which subsequently reduce people’s perceived distance to climate change, encourage concern and behavioral intention. Less visually literate people are more influenced by the visuals’ effect and are more motivated by concrete images. Our study integrates theoretical perspectives from construal level, emotional valence and visual literacy, while also offering practical advice regarding how to effectively visualize climate change to engage a wide audience.
... While previous research and reviews examined a variety of drivers and inhibitors of proenvironmental behavior, existing works have investigated the role of myopia (Sacchi et al., 2016;van der Wal et al., 2018;Stafford and Graul, 2020) and environmental apathy (e.g., Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002;Soyez, 2012), which other works have found to be important in impeding environmental behavior. As such, we have integrated these into a TPB approach to examine low-involvement pro-environmental purchase intentions. ...
Purpose – To achieve the UN’s 2030 agenda, consumers will need to behave more
responsibly and make less environmentally harmful purchases. This study investigates the antecedents of consumers’ pro-environmental purchase intentions based on a range of motivating (i.e., attitudes, locus of control) and inhibiting factors (i.e., apathy and myopia), for a low-involvement product. It also tests the moderating effect of the greenness of a low involvement product (green vs. non-green) on the consumer’s pro-environmental purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach – An online panel survey of 679 Turkish consumers was
employed. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.
Findings – The results suggest that while inhibiting factors (i.e., apathy and myopia) may not directly impede such purchase intentions, they could prevent consumers from considering the environmental characteristics of low-involvement products.
Originality – This study examines the role of inhibiting factors behind the purchase of low involvement goods. It also tests the moderating effect of the greenness of a low-involvement product on pro-environmental purchase intentions.
Practical implications – The insights are expected to assist marketers and policymakers to understand consumer psychological mechanisms when encouraging and promoting pro environmental behavior in the context of low-involvement purchases, enhancing consumers contributing to the 2030 objectives.
... In 2008, the Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change of the American Psychological Association (APA), recommended an investigation of the consequences of exposure to environmental hazards and the psychological responses of people in terms of emotional, motivational, interpersonal and organizational variables (Swim et al., 2009). Recent years have seen an increase in the number of scientific studies regarding the impact of climate change (Mares, 2013;Guy et al., 2014;Ojala, 2015;Moussa et al., 2016;Sacchi et al., 2016). These studies reflect aspects of vulnerability from systemic and global perspectives, in particular with respect to the degree of exposure to environmental risks and the multiple interactions between humans and their immediate environment (Mambet et al., 2020). ...
Progressive changes in local environmental scenarios, accelerated by global climate change, can negatively affect the mental health of people who inhabit these areas. The magnitude of these effects may vary depending on the socioeconomic conditions of people and the characteristics of the environment, so certain territories can be more vulnerable than others. In this context, the present study aimed to geographically analyse the levels of psychosocial impact and the types of disruptive responses related to the new territorial scenarios caused by climate change in the coastal drylands of the Maule region, Chile. For this purpose, 223 people from two communes (Curepto and Pencahue) were psychosocially evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) together with a survey of the prevailing sociodemographic and socioeconomic conditions in relation to the environmental variables of the territory. All information was georeferenced, stored within an ArcGIS Desktop geographic information system (GIS) and then investigated by application of contingency tables, ANOVA and local clustering analysis using SSP statistical software. The results indicated a high level of PTSD in the population, with significant differences related to age and education as well as employment conditions and income. The spatial results showed high PTSD values in the communal capital of Curepto in the central agricultural valley near the estuary of the local river, while the existence of coldspots was observed in the central valley of the Pencahue commune. It was concluded that proximity to population centres and surface water sources played the greatest role for the development of PTSD.
... However, psychological distance has been often identified as a major barrier to act on climate change [4]. The psychological distance of climate change leads individuals to feel as if climate change is not a pressing issue, irrelevant to where they live and to whom they know personally, and an unlikely event [5]. ...
Climate change is certainly a global problem that negatively affects all nations, and thus all humans, on the globe. Nevertheless, little is known about people’s perceptions of climate change and its effects on people’s attitudinal and behavioral responses to climate change. The present study successfully addressed how hotel guests’ environment-friendly behavior intention is formed through their self-perception as a member of the global community and their psychological distance of climate change. An online survey was used to collect quantitative data from hotel guests to verify the hypotheses. Our test results supported all the hypotheses in our conceptual model. Consequently, the findings of this study satisfactorily explained how hotel guests form their intention to engage in environment-friendly behaviors while they are staying at hotels.
... For example, Wang et al. (2019) showed how psychological distance, but not necessarily the associated construal, was a predictor of pro-environmental behavior and policy choice in the context of climate change. Similarly, other studies have shown how traits like cognitive style may interact with psychological distance and attitudes towards climate change (Sacchi et al. 2016). ...
As part of the Science|Environment|Health pedagogy, educators utilize socioscientific issues to foster student motivation and decision-making processes. However, students will only engage in higher-order learning processes if they perceive the respective issues to be meaningful to them, which means they feel concerned by and close to them. As this connection is currently poorly understood, this chapter proposes the theory of psychological distance as a fine-grained approach to understand more precisely people’s connectedness towards environmental and health issues. Based on the four dimensions of temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical distance, we show how psychological distance may relate to science teaching and learning. In particular, we explain how the theory (1) helps to better understand climate action using the example of Fridays for Future, (2) can be used to understand the framing and perception of health messages, and (3) could assist science teachers interested in constructing teaching resources that make use of psychological distance. Additionally, the chapter offers an empirical perspective by illustrating socio-psychological measurement possibilities and results from empirical studies about the connections between psychological distance and teaching motivation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of further applications of psychological distance in environmental and health education within the context of Science|Environment|Health.
... The other recent research stream attempts to express consumers' environmental behavior via the construal level theory (CLT) of psychological distance. Researchers focus on explaining the interaction of psychological distance involving factors such as climate-change related events (McDonald et al., 2015) individuals' cognitive response styles (Sacchi et al., 2016) and concern for impacts on climate (Singh et al., 2017) or environmental pollution . The current study focused on individuals' construal evaluation, such as desirability and feasibility (Trope & Liberman, 2010;Liberman and Trope, 1998) which basically denotes their sense of urgency as expressed in their pro-environmental purchase intention. ...
Contesting the conventional view that the consumer belief system is directly linked with their pro-environmental purchase intention, we argue that this nexus is filtered through consumer psychological beliefs. Theoretical underpinning constitutes a synthesis of Construal Level and Planned Behavior Theories. Data are collected through two phases of mixed-method research design − the exploratory qualitative field study and the quantitative study. Data are analyzed using NVivo and PLS path modeling in the first and the second study respectively. Research findings indicate that consumers' construal evaluation of their action in near and distant future terms has a selective influence on their beliefs about, and purchase intention of, pro-environmental products. The results also show that individuals’ psychological distance mediates the relationship between their beliefs and intention for pro-environmental product purchases. For the marketing strategists, the results can significantly contribute to improving the current consumer promotion for persuading them to make a pro-environmental purchase.
... The last dimension is locus of attention, which places the focus on "the big picture," considering the elements of the stimulus as a whole (rather than decomposing the stimulus in their parts, Miyamoto et al., 2006). This scale has been widely used to show the impact of holisticanalytic thinking on a wide range of domains like self-identity (Martin & Shao, 2016), well-being and satisfaction (Chen & Murphy, 2019;Ng et al., 2021), emotion experience (Larsen et al., 2017;Santos et al., 2021), consumer behavior (Allman et al., 2019), donation behavior (Zhou et al., 2021), environmental concern (Ito & Li, 2019;Sacchi et al., 2016), or performance creativity (Chen, 2020), just to mention a few examples. Furthermore, the role of the AHS varies as a function of the context, and can serve as predictor, outcome, mediator, or moderator of other variables of interest (see Koo et al., 2018, for a review). ...
Holistic-analytic thinking styles are tools that allow us to process information in different ways as well as serving as strategies that help us navigate the world in the various domains of life, such as making causal attributions or categorizing. The Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS) is a 24-item scale that was developed to examine systematic cognitive differences regarding holistic-analytic thinking style. However, its length could be a potential problem for studies where space and time are limited. The aim of the present research is to assess the psychometric properties of the AHS items in order to assemble two shortened versions. To this end, we considered the assessment of item content conducted by a panel of experts and also the conceptual model and the latent structure of the original measure, preserving its psychometric properties. Across five independent samples (N = 2,254), the full-length scale was shortened to assemble one brief version with 12 items (AHS-12) and another one with only 4 items (AHS-4). Their latent structures were examined conducting a series of confirmatory factor analyses, the measurement invariance of these instruments was assessed across two different cultures (America and Spanish) and validity was examined based on its relationship with other constructs and experimental tasks. The results showed that the latent structures of both shortened versions were stable in different samples, that were invariant across two different cultures, and presented adequate evidence of validity. Hence, the AHS-12 and the AHS-4 can allow researchers a brief and precise evaluation of cognitive styles in contexts where time is limited, with the AHS-12 being a better candidate for the short version of AHS compared to the AHS-4.
... For example, Wang et al. (2019) showed how psychological distance, but not necessarily the associated construal, was a predictor of pro-environmental behavior and policy choice in the context of climate change. Similarly, other studies have shown how traits like cognitive style may interact with psychological distance and attitudes towards climate change (Sacchi et al. 2016). ...
As part of the Science|Environment|Health pedagogy, educators uti-lize socioscientific issues to foster student motivation and decision-making processes. But students will only engage in higher-order learn-ing processes if they perceive that the respective issues are meaning-ful to them, which means they feel concerned by and close to them. As this connection is currently poorly understood, this chapter pro-poses the theory of psychological distance as a fine-grained approach to understand more precisely people’s connectedness towards envi-ronmental and health issues. Based on the four dimensions of tem-poral, spatial, social, and hypothetical distance we show how psycho-logical distance may relate to science teaching and learning. In partic-ular, we explain how the theory (1) helps to better understand cli-mate action using the example of Fridays for Future, (2) can be used to understand the framing and perception of health messages, and (3) could assist science teachers interested in constructing teaching re-sources that make use of psychological distance. Additionally, the chapter offers an empirical perspective by illustrating socio-psychological measurement possibilities and results from empirical studies about the connections between psychological distance and teaching motivation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of fur-ther applications of psychological distance in environmental and health education within the context of Science|Environment|Health.
... Experimental Manipulation. Following Sacchi et al. (2016), we used a series of Navon figures to stimulate either piecemeal or holistic thinking. Navon figures (Navon 1977) are composed of small letters (e.g., "H") that together form a large letter (e.g., an "S") (see Online Appendix E). ...
When soliciting novel product ideas from the “crowd,” companies may opt to show a prototype in order to steer the generation of ideas in the desired direction. On the one hand, the more features the prototype incorporates, the larger the potential for activating relevant knowledge in memory that may serve as a basis for generating novel ideas. On the other hand, it increases the risk of fixation on the incorporated features, which may inhibit the generation of novel ideas. Based on the “dual pathway to creativity” theory, which identifies the depth and breadth of exploration of one’s knowledge base as cognitive pathways to the generation of novel ideas, we argue that the number (and type) of features included in the prototype in combination with the design goal, that is, generating ideas for functional versus aesthetic product improvements, determines whether the positive effects outweigh the negative effects. With a functional design goal, we find that exposure to a prototype with more features leads to more novel ideas as a result of a more thorough exploration of one’s knowledge base. However, with an aesthetic design goal, exposure to a prototype with more features leads to less novel ideas because of a narrower exploration. The latter effect is driven by people’s tendency to consider the whole or gestalt of the prototype when generating aesthetic ideas. This negative effect can, thus, be mitigated by stimulating people to employ a nonholistic, piecemeal thinking style.
This paper was accepted by Ashish Arora, entrepreneurship and innovation.
... A mudança das práticas de consumo tradicionais para uma postura ambientalmente responsável enseja esforços e mudanças sociais, alicerçados em ações educacionais adaptadas à cultura de cada grupo social (Sacchi, Riva, & Aceto, 2016;Yu, Yu, & Chao, 2017). Brügger, Morton e Dessai (2016) defendem que a resistência à adoção de hábitos de consumo ambientalmente responsáveis e éticos está na sensação de que as alterações ambientais estão distantes, em tempos e lugares remotos, e que não impactam diretamente a vida dos indivíduos. ...
Objective:
this study aimed at analyzing the relationship between psychological distance and environmental consumption, embodied in the intention to purchase and loyalty to pro-environmental products, mediated by environmental responsibility.
Methods:
113 responses obtained through a survey conducted with academics from the Accounting Sciences course were analyzed, using the structural equation modeling technique to identify the proposed relationships and the possible mediating effect between the constructs.
Results:
the results illustrate the existence of partial mediation of environmental responsibility in the relationship between psychological distance and the intensity of purchase and total with the loyalty of consumers. The non-rejection of the research hypothesis exposes the importance of analyzing psychological elements regarding to the consumption behavior of pro-environmental products.
Conclusions:
theoretical contributions indicate that environmental responsibility is capable of promoting the consumption of pro-environmental products. In practical terms, Accounting courses can incorporate discussions about socio-ethical-environmental values, expanding classroom debates about environmental responsibility beyond the financial aspects specifically aimed at creating economic value for the organization.
... A mudança das práticas de consumo tradicionais para uma postura ambientalmente responsável enseja esforços e mudanças sociais, alicerçados em ações educacionais adaptadas à cultura de cada grupo social (Sacchi, Riva, & Aceto, 2016;Yu, Yu, & Chao, 2017). Brügger, Morton e Dessai (2016) defendem que a resistência à adoção de hábitos de consumo ambientalmente responsáveis e éticos está na sensação de que as alterações ambientais estão distantes, em tempos e lugares remotos, e que não impactam diretamente a vida dos indivíduos. ...
Objetivo:
este estudo teve como objetivo analisar a relação entre a distância psicológica com o consumo ambiental, consubstanciado na intenção de compra e na lealdade a produtos pró-ambientais, mediadas pela responsabilidade ambiental.
Métodos:
foram analisadas 113 respostas obtidas por meio de uma survey realizada junto aos acadêmicos do curso de Ciências Contábeis utilizando-se da técnica de modelagem de equações estruturais para identificar as relações propostas e o possível efeito mediador existente entre os construtos.
Resultados:
os resultados ilustram a existência de mediação parcial da responsabilidade ambiental na relação entre distância psicológica com a intensidade de compra e total com a lealdade dos consumidores. A não rejeição da hipótese de pesquisa expõe a importância da análise de elementos psicológicos frente ao comportamento de consumo de produtos pró-ambientais.
Conclusões:
as contribuições teóricas indicam que a responsabilidade ambiental é capaz de promover o consumo de produtos pró-ambientais. Em termos práticos, cursos de Ciências Contábeis podem incorporar discussões sobre valores éticos socioambientais, expandindo os debates em sala de aula sobre responsabilidade ambiental para além dos aspectos financeiros voltados especificamente para a criação de valor econômico para a organização.
... Another explanation of the present findings is that the willingness to behave in a pro-environmental way is complex problem. Sacchi, Riva and Aceto [25] found that in addition to analytic cognitive style, the psychological closeness of climate change plays a role. Moreover, Meyer [26] provides a review of studies on the effect of education on proenvironmental behaviour: several studies found people with higher education as more eco-friendly behaving. ...
Günümüz dünyasının beraberinde getirdiği iklim krizi, pandemi, ekonomik eşitsizlik gibi çoklu krizler birbirine bağlı ve karmaşık yapıdadır. Bu karmaşık yapı, indirgemeci ve tek yönlü bir bakış açısı yerine bu sistemler arası ilişkileri anlamaya imkân sağlayacak karmaşık düşünce biçimini gerektirmektedir. Olguları kategorilere ayırarak ilerleyen analitik düşüncenin ötesinde olgular arasındaki ilişkileri vurgulayan holistik düşüncenin, modern dünyanın krizlerine çözüm üretme noktasında etkili bir yaklaşım sağlayabileceğini öneriyoruz. Bu amaçla, farklılıklarının ve temel ilkelerinin kapsamlı bir şekilde anlaşılabilmesi adına öncelikle analitik ve holistik düşünce biçimlerinin felsefi ve evrimsel kökenlerini ele aldık. Daha sonrasında holistik düşüncenin günümüzün ve geleceğin önemli problemlerinden olan iklim krizi, COVID-19 pandemisi ve ekonomik eşitsizlik özelinde sağlayabileceği avantajları çeşitli bulgularla özetledik. Ele alınan bulgular ışığında, kavramları çözümleme ve tanımlama açısından analitik düşüncenin önemini vurgularken holistik düşüncenin bu parçalar arasındaki ilişkileri anlamadaki tamamlayıcı rolünü savunuyoruz. Bu bütüncül yaklaşımın, modern dünyanın karşı karşıya olduğu çoklu krizleri kapsamlı bir şekilde ele almak için önemli bir çerçeve sunacağını öne sürüyoruz.
How does personally tailored climate impact information affect attitudes towards climate policy paths? We developed an online tool to depict the outcomes of downscaled climate models and a personalised vulnerability estimate. A survey representing Finnish public was conducted to find out the attitudes towards climate policies and psychological distance of climate change among different demographic groups before and after using the tool. We found that tailored information increases knowledge on climate impacts, but the effect on policy attitudes depends on demographic attributes (especially age and income) and related personal vulnerability. After using the tool, the respondents’ confidence in their knowledge increased and the potential of climate policies to alleviate changes in the environment was perceived as higher. Most respondents perceived climate impacts as spatially proximal, while temporally and socially there was more variation. For those with low vulnerability levels, climate impacts appeared as more distant after obtaining tailored information.
We examine the impact of CEOs’ moral foundations (MFs) – innate source of moral intuitions – on firms' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Using a linguistic technique on unscripted texts spoken by 1,860 CEOs of S&P 1500 firms over five years, we found that CEOs with higher binding MFs (i.e., focus on expectations of key stakeholder groups) are associated with lower ESG performance. In contrast, we found that CEOs with higher individualizing MFs (i.e., focus on well-being of individuals in general) are associated with higher ESG performance. Our study contributes to the upper echelons theory by providing evidence that CEO morality matters for ESG outcomes. We add to MFs theory by showing that a bi-dimensional lens on CEO’s morality (i.e., binding vs individualizing) reveals nuances on ESG outcomes.
To date, little research has been conducted to understand the role of psychological distances on smoking behaviour. Construal Level Theory posits that individuals mentally construe events, objects, or ideas based on their perceived distance in terms of spatial, temporal, social, and hypothetical dimensions, influencing their judgments and decision-making processes. The aim of the current study was (1) to provide a comprehensive exploration of psychological distances of costs and benefits of tobacco smoking and antismoking intention and (2) to examine whether smoking can be attributed to rational behaviour based on the psychological distance weighted balance of perceived costs and benefits of quitting and continuing smoking. Mediation models delineating the relationships among temporal and hypothetical psychological distances, personal relevance and antismoking intention were tested on cross-sectional survey data of 1486 smokers (880 men, Mage = 39.9 years, SD = 13.36). Psychological distances were shown to be important factors in the cognitive evaluation process of smoking behaviour. Perceived temporal distance to smoking continuation/cessation was related to personal importance and hypothetical psychological distances, which were associated with anti-smoking intention. Furthermore, antismoking intention was related to the psychological distance-weighted gain-cost balance of quitting and continuing smoking. The current findings enhance our knowledge of the cognitive evaluation of the outcomes of smoking, indicating that the choice of not quitting smoking may be partially based on a biased rational decision-making process.
Όλοι οι τομείς δράσης για την αντιμετώπιση της σύγχρονης κλιματικής κρίσης απαιτούν την υιοθέτηση μετασχηματιστικών προοπτικών με όραμα την αειφορία. Η εκπαίδευση ειδικότερα αναγνωρίζεται ως κεντρικός παράγοντας στην ανάληψη και καλλιέργεια ενός τέτοιου προσανατολισμού, μέσα από την εννοιολόγηση της κλιματικής κρίσης και των προκλήσεων που εμπεριέχει και την ενεργοποίηση και ενδυνάμωση ατόμων και κοινοτήτων απέναντι σε αυτή. Αξιοποιώντας και προεκτείνοντας τη θεωρία και την πράξη της Περιβαλλοντικής Εκπαίδευσης και της Εκπαίδευσης για την Αειφόρο Ανάπτυξη, στους κόλπους των οποίων γεννήθηκε και εντάσσεται η εκπαίδευση για την κλιματική αλλαγή, θεωρούμε ότι μπορεί να μπορεί να συμβάλλει σε μια ανανέωση της προβληματικής τους και παράλληλα να προσφέρει νέα πεδία εστίασης στην εκπαιδευτική θεωρία, έρευνα, πολιτική και πρακτική. Στο παρόν άρθρο προσεγγίζουμε την κλιματική αλλαγή ως ένα ιδιαίτερο κοινωνικο-περιβαλλοντικό ζήτημα και μαθησιακό αντικείμενο με τα χαρακτηριστικά του «φαύλου» προβλήματος, η αντίληψη, γνωστική και συναισθηματική διαχείριση του οποίου προσκρούει σε μια σειρά από εσωτερικούς ψυχολογικούς μηχανισμούς και εμπόδια. Χρησιμοποιούμε τη θεωρητική ανάλυση και την ερευνητική μαρτυρία για να φωτίσουμε πλευρές και διαστάσεις της ανθρώπινης εμπλοκής με τις προκλήσεις που θέτει η κλιματική αλλαγή ως ένα τέτοιο «φαύλο» πρόβλημα. Τέλος, προτείνουμε ένα πλαίσιο διδακτικών όρων σε επίπεδο εκπαιδευτικού σχεδιασμού και μεθοδολογικών επιλογών, που διασφαλίζει συμβατές και κατάλληλες παιδαγωγικές προσεγγίσεις και πιο αυθεντικές μαθησιακές εμπειρίες, για μια περιβαλλοντική εκπαίδευση με στόχο την αειφορία και θεματική επικέντρωση την κλιματική αλλαγή.
People are not autonomous individuals but connected beings. Curae ergo sum – we care, therefore we are. Relationality – which refers to the ethic and manner by which relational considerations govern decisions and institutional arrangements can take advantage of the power of connection – uncovers how social connection, across divides, moves people to act for the other. Drawing from research on empathy, social networks, and determinants of pro-social behavior, Caring, Empathy, and the Commons builds on Ostrom's Governing the Commons. It offers a different mechanism by which collective action is induced, arguing that, sometimes, the individual thinks not in terms of individual gain but in terms of the other. Developing this concept of relationality, this book explores various strands of literature and examines how this idea might be used to foster collective action around climate, species protection, fair trade, and other dilemmas of the commons.
People are not autonomous individuals but connected beings. Curae ergo sum – we care, therefore we are. Relationality – which refers to the ethic and manner by which relational considerations govern decisions and institutional arrangements can take advantage of the power of connection – uncovers how social connection, across divides, moves people to act for the other. Drawing from research on empathy, social networks, and determinants of pro-social behavior, Caring, Empathy, and the Commons builds on Ostrom's Governing the Commons. It offers a different mechanism by which collective action is induced, arguing that, sometimes, the individual thinks not in terms of individual gain but in terms of the other. Developing this concept of relationality, this book explores various strands of literature and examines how this idea might be used to foster collective action around climate, species protection, fair trade, and other dilemmas of the commons.
Notwithstanding the increasing incidence of extreme weather events around the globe, the battle lines on climate policy in many countries seem as insurmountable as ever. This research endeavors to shed light on why progress on climate policy is difficult in some countries and less so in others. The introduction of concepts such as the Watershed Model of policy formulation and the Trichotomy of Climate Policy Intractability, together with the exploration of public policy frameworks, media studies, and social contract theory, provide some context to these battle lines so that future policymakers have a better understanding of how to nudge publics toward urgent reforms and improve the underlying (or upstream) conditions from which robust climate policy might emerge.
Water safety refers to the quality of one's drinking water and whether it lacks dangerous contaminants. Limited access to safe water is projected to impact approximately 5 billion people worldwide by 2050. Climate change and worsening severe weather events pose increasing threats to global water safety. However, people may not perceive links between climate change and water safety, potentially undermining their willingness to implement behaviors that improve water safety. Existing studies on water safety risk perceptions have mostly been conducted in single-country contexts, which limits researchers' ability to make cross-national comparisons. Here, we assessed the extent to which people's severe weather concern and climate change concern predict their water safety concern. Our analyses used survey data from the 142-country 2019 Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll, including 21 low-income and 34 lower-middle-income countries. In mixed-effects models, severe weather concern was significantly more predictive of water safety concern than was climate change concern, although both resulted in positive associations. Worldwide, this finding was robust, insensitive to key model specifications and countries' varying protection against unsafe drinking water. We suggest communicators and policymakers improve messaging about water safety and other environmental threats by explaining how they are impacted by worsening severe weather.
Using a survey experiment among a special sample composed of art house cinema visitors, we investigate whether spatial climate messages increase subjects' willingness to pay for an inclusion of public transport fares in cinema tickets as well as their willingness to use public transport in case such a combined ticket is introduced. Based on previous findings, we expect emphasizing the positive impact of public transport usage on the local level to have a greater effect on subjects' preferences for public transport than a message that highlights the global consequences. Contrary to these expectations, our results show that the global treatment increases subjects' willingness to pay compared to the local treatment and the baseline. Both treatments increase subjects' willingness to use public transport. Conducting a sub-sample analysis, we find that also the local message increases the willingness to pay for a combined ticket among respondents who lack a financial interest as they already own a season ticket for public transport.
How to increase public engagement in environmental issues is a central question in environmental communication and environmental psychology literatures. Psychological distance (PD) is one potential barrier to public engagement. PD describes the perceptual distance between a person’s experience and an external target. Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) have the potential to shrink PD. Yet, we know little about how people perceive and react to an environmental VR experience or about the role that PD plays in these reactions. To address this gap, we use interviews and focus groups to examine how people react to a VR experience about ocean acidification. We find that PD is prevalent in the reactions of VR users, especially first-time users, and that 62% of participants described feeling psychologically close to ocean acidification.
The authors argue that attribution patterns reflect implicit theories acquired from induction and socialization and hence differentially distributed across human cultures. In particular, the authors tested the hypothesis that dispositionalism in attribution for behavior reflects a theory of social behavior more widespread in individualist than collectivist cultures. Study 1 demonstrated that causal perceptions of social events but not physical events differed between American and Chinese students. Study 2 found English-language newspapers were more dispositional and Chinese-language newspapers were more situational in explanations of the same crimes. Study 3 found that Chinese survey respondents differed in weightings of personal dispositions and situational factors as causes of recent murders and in counterfactual judgments about how murders might have been averted by changed situations. Implications for issues in cognitive, social, and organizational psychology are discussed.
Converging evidence from the behavioural and brain sciences suggests that the human moral judgement system is not well equipped to identify climate change — a complex, large-scale and unintentionally caused phenomenon — as an important moral imperative. As climate change fails to generate strong moral intuitions, it does not motivate an urgent need for action in the way that other moral imperatives do. We review six reasons why climate change poses significant challenges to our moral judgement system and describe six strategies that communicators might use to confront these challenges. Enhancing moral intuitions about climate change may motivate greater support for ameliorative actions and policies.
Most people think climate change and sustainability are important problems, but too few global citizens engaged in high-greenhouse-gas-emitting behavior are engaged in enough mitigating behavior to stem the increasing flow of greenhouse gases and other environmental problems. Why is that? Structural barriers such as a climate-averse infrastructure are part of the answer, but psychological barriers also impede behavioral choices that would facilitate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental sustainability. Although many individuals are engaged in some ameliorative action, most could do more, but they are hindered by seven categories of psychological barriers, or "dragons of inaction": limited cognition about the problem, ideological worldviews that tend to preclude pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, comparisons with key other people, sunk costs and behavioral momentum, discredence toward experts and authorities, perceived risks of change, and positive but inadequate behavior change. Structural barriers must be removed wherever possible, but this is unlikely to be sufficient. Psychologists must work with other scientists, technical experts, and policymakers to help citizens overcome these psychological barriers.
Argue that attribution patterns reflect implicit theories acquired from induction and socialization and hence differentially distributed across human cultures. In particular, the authors tested the hypothesis that dispositionalism in attribution for behavior reflects a theory of social behavior more widespread in individualist than collectivist cultures. Study 1 demonstrated that causal perceptions of social events but not physical events differed between American and Chinese students. Study 2 found English-language newspapers were more dispositional and Chinese-language newspapers were more situational in explanations of the same crimes. Study 3 found that Chinese survey respondents differed in weightings of personal dispositions and situational factors as causes of recent murders and in counterfactual judgments about how murders might have been averted by changed situations. Implications for issues in cognitive, social, and organizational psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter reviews the empirical results and theoretical underpinnings of studies of fear arousing communications. It focuses on the interrelationship of emotional and instrumental behavior. The chapter presents an overview of the key components of fear communication experiments and introduces the two major theoretical paradigms that can be used to interpret the findings. The first and historically most important of the paradigms is the fear drive model, a variant of the classic drive reduction model used in many animal learning studies. It assumes that the emotional response of fear functions as a drive that mediates belief change and behavior change. The second paradigm was suggested by the experimental data. This model assumes that the communication produces both persuasion and fear; fear does not cause persuasion. The chapter reviews the evidence regarding interactions between the level of fear elicited by the communication and other factors such as personality variables and recommendation effectiveness. It reveals that the outcomes are often influenced by complex contingencies. But despite the complexity, serious effort has been made to identify empirical regularities and presents a theoretical model to provide conceptual integration.
It should come as no surprise that the governments and citizenries of many countries show little concern about climate change and its consequences. Behavioral decision research over the last 30 years provides a series of lessons about the importance of affect in perceptions of risk and in decisions to take actions that reduce or manage perceived risks. Evidence from a range of domains suggests that worry drives risk management decisions. When people fail to be alarmed about a risk or hazard, they do not take precautions. Recent personal experience strongly influences the evaluation of a risky option. Low-probability events generate less concern than their probability warrants on average, but more concern than they deserve in those rare instances when they do occur. Personal experience with noticeable and serious consequences of global warming is still rare in many regions of the world. When people base their decisions on statistical descriptions about a hazard provided by others, characteristics of the hazard identified as psychological risk dimensions predict differences in alarm or worry across different classes of risk. The time-delayed, abstract, and often statistical nature of the risks of global warming does not evoke strong visceral reactions. These results suggest that we should find ways to evoke visceral reactions towards the risk of global warming, perhaps by simulations of its concrete future consequences for people's home or other regions they visit or value. Increased concern about global warming needs to solicited carefully, however, to prevent a decrease in concern about other relevant risks. The generation of worry or concern about global warming may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for desirable or appropriate protective or mitigating behavior on part of the general public.
There has been little research on the differential aspects of the local/global dichotomy, yet there is every suggestion that such a distinction could be crucially important in terms of understanding the public's perceptions and attitudes towards environmental problems as well as understanding their subsequent behaviour. This research sought to address three questions. First, are people only able to relate to environmental issues if they are concrete, immediate and local? Second, do people consider environmental problems to be more serious at a global or a local level? Third, what is the effect of the public's perceptions of the seriousness of environmental problems on their sense of responsibility for taking action?Three studies were undertaken in Australia, England, Ireland and Slovakia. The results of each study consistently demonstrate that respondents are not only able to conceptualize problems at a global level, but an inverse distance effect is found such that environmental problems are perceived to be more serious the farther away they are from the perceiver. An inverse relationship was also found between a sense of responsibility for environmental problems and spatial scale resulting in feelings of powerlessness at a global level. The paper concludes with a discussion of various psychological theories and perspectives which informs our analysis and understanding of what might be seen as environmental hyperopia.
A survey investigated risk judgements related to climate change. In order to understand which the important determinants of such risk judgements are, demographic factors and knowledge were assessed in a questionnaire answered by 621 Swedish residents. Demographic factors included gender, parenthood, type and level of education, age, and level of urbanization of the place of residence, while knowledge covered knowledge of state, causes, and consequences of climate change. Regression analyses showed that both cognitive risk judgements (of probability) of serious negative consequences and affective risk judgements (worry) were predicted by knowledge of causes and knowledge of consequences of climate change, in particular health consequences. Women were more worried than men but did not differ from men with respect to the cognitive risk judgements.
Do individuals’ perceptions of their interdependence with the natural environment affect their environmental behaviors? From the perspective of interdependence theory, we introduce a scale to measure commitment to the natural environment. In Study 1, higher levels of commitment to the environment and greater inclusion of nature in the self separately predicted higher levels of pro-environmental behavior, even when controlling for social desirability and ecological worldview. In Study 2, participants primed to experience high commitment to the environment reported greater levels of pro-environmental behavioral intentions as well as pro-environmental behavior relative to participants primed to experience low commitment to the environment. Commitment to the natural environment is a new theoretical construct that predicts environmental behavior.
We discuss a cross-national pilot study in Sweden and the UK examining young people's environmental concerns and their perceptions of the causes and solutions. The study demonstrates that evaluations of the causes of environmental degradation are partly contingent upon the manner in which questions are framed leading to quite different interpretations of the findings. Moreover, attitudes also differ significantly between the British and the Swedish sample: in the UK environmental degradation is seen as more serious but also more distant from the respondents’ everyday experiences when answering pre-formulated questions. The causes of environmental degradation are located in both countries in government and industry policies promoting economic growth on the one hand. On the other, respondents identify distant developments in emerging economies as problems, without connecting their local experiences to the global effects they describe. In the open-ended part of the survey, individual behaviour is seen as the most important cause of environmental degradation. But while British respondents describe individuals as selfish, lazy and consumerist, Swedish respondents emphasise also structural causes like Western lifestyles and the market society. We present possible explanations for these differences and discuss the relationships between the global and the local in relation to constructions of the Other as well as the relationship of individualism and authoritarianism that emerge from the results.
People are capable of thinking about the future, the past, remote locations, another person's perspective, and counterfactual alternatives. Without denying the uniqueness of each process, it is proposed that they constitute different forms of traversing psychological distance. Psychological distance is egocentric: Its reference point is the self in the here and now, and the different ways in which an object might be removed from that point-in time, in space, in social distance, and in hypotheticality-constitute different distance dimensions. Transcending the self in the here and now entails mental construal, and the farther removed an object is from direct experience, the higher (more abstract) the level of construal of that object. Supporting this analysis, research shows (a) that the various distances are cognitively related to each other, (b) that they similarly influence and are influenced by level of mental construal, and (c) that they similarly affect prediction, preference, and action.
G*Power is a free power analysis program for a variety of statistical tests. We present extensions and improvements of the version introduced by Faul, Erdfelder, Lang, and Buchner (2007) in the domain of correlation and regression analyses. In the new version, we have added procedures to analyze the power of tests based on (1) single-sample tetrachoric correlations, (2) comparisons of dependent correlations, (3) bivariate linear regression, (4) multiple linear regression based on the random predictor model, (5) logistic regression, and (6) Poisson regression. We describe these new features and provide a brief introduction to their scope and handling.
The question of whether perception is analytic or wholistic is an enduring issue in psychology. The global-precedence hypothesis, considered by many as a modern version of the Gestaltist claim about the perceptual primacy of wholes, has generated a large body of research, but the debate still remains very active. This article reviews the research within the global/local paradigm, and critically analyzes the assumptions underlying this paradigm. The extent to which this line of research contributes to understanding the role of wholistic processing in object perception is discussed. It is concluded that one should be very cautious in making inferences about wholistic processing from the processing advantage of the global level of stimulus structure. A distinction is proposed between global properties, defined by their position in the hierarchical structure of the stimulus, and wholistic properties, defined as a function of interrelations among component parts. It is suggested that a direct comparison between processing of wholistic and component properties is needed to support the hypothesis about the perceptual primacy of wholistic processing.
East Asian cognition has been held to be relatively holistic; that is, attention is paid to the field as a whole. Western cognition, in contrast, has been held to be object focused and control oriented. In this study East Asians (mostly Chinese) and Americans were compared on detection of covariation and field dependence. The results showed the following: (a) Chinese participants reported stronger association between events, were more responsive to differences in covariation, and were more confident about their covariation judgments; (b) these cultural differences disappeared when participants believed they had some control over the covariation judgment task; (c) American participants made fewer mistakes on the Rod-and-Frame Test, indicating that they were less field dependent; (d) American performance and confidence, but not that of Asians, increased when participants were given manual control of the test. Possible origins of the perceptual differences are discussed.
The authors find East Asians to be holistic, attending to the entire field and assigning causality to it, making relatively little use of categories and formal logic, and relying on "dialectical" reasoning, whereas Westerners are more analytic, paying attention primarily to the object and the categories to which it belongs and using rules, including formal logic, to understand its behavior. The 2 types of cognitive processes are embedded in different naive metaphysical systems and tacit epistemologies. The authors speculate that the origin of these differences is traceable to markedly different social systems. The theory and the evidence presented call into question long-held assumptions about basic cognitive processes and even about the appropriateness of the process-content distinction.
The authors constructed the Analysis-Holism Scale (AHS) to measure analytic versus holistic thinking tendency. In Study 1, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, a 24-item scale was developed. In Study 2, convergent and discriminant validities were tested. In Studies 3 and 4, the known-group difference validity was examined by comparing scores on the AHS of Americans and Koreans (Study 3) and of Korean students of Oriental medicine and Korean students of non-Oriental medicine majors (Study 4). Results of Studies 3 and 4 show that Koreans and Korean students of Oriental medicine scored higher on the AHS than did Americans and Korean students of non-Oriental medicine majors, respectively. Studies 5 and 6 tested predictive validity by examining associations of the AHS with performances on two cognitive tasks (categorization and causal reasoning). Data analysis shows that those with high scores on the AHS displayed the holistic pattern of performances on each task more than did those with low scores.
This paper examines the impact of climate change on rich and poor countries across the world. We measure two indices of the relative impact of climate across countries, impact per capita, and impact per GDP. These measures sum market impacts across the climate-sensitive economic sectors of each country. Both indices reveal that climate change will have serious distributional impact across countries, grouped by income per capita. We predict that poor countries will suffer the bulk of the damages from climate change. Although adaptation, wealth, and technology may influence distributional consequences across countries, we argue that the primary reason that poor countries are so vulnerable is their location. Countries in the low latitudes start with very high temperatures. Further warming pushes these countries ever further away from optimal temperatures for climate-sensitive economic sectors.
This paper re‐examines the commonly observed inverse relationship between perceived risk and perceived benefit. We propose that this relationship occurs because people rely on affect when judging the risk and benefit of specific hazards. Evidence supporting this proposal is obtained in two experimental studies. Study 1 investigated the inverse relationship between risk and benefit judgments under a time‐pressure condition designed to limit the use of analytic thought and enhance the reliance on affect. As expected, the inverse relationship was strengthened when time pressure was introduced. Study 2 tested and confirmed the hypothesis that providing information designed to alter the favorability of one's overall affective evaluation of an item (say nuclear power) would systematically change the risk and benefit judgments for that item. Both studies suggest that people seem prone to using an ‘affect heuristic’ which improves judgmental efficiency by deriving both risk and benefit evaluations from a common source—affective reactions to the stimulus item. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how high school students’ cognitive tendencies in holistic/analytic style relate to their active or passive behavioral patterns observed in the classroom. It was speculated that academic intrinsic motivation might play the role as a moderator and learning approach (the structure-oriented approach versus the depth-oriented approach) might function as a mediator in the effects of holistic/analytic style on classroom learning behaviors. A sample of 1065 high school students in China were assessed in classroom learning behavior, holistic/analytic style, learning approach, and academic intrinsic motivation via the use of relevant measures. Results indicated that holistic style and analytic style were significant predictors of classroom learning behavior. The study also revealed significant moderation effects of intrinsic motivation and significant mediation effects of learning approach. Academic intrinsic motivation and learning approach were proven to be two relevant variables in unraveling the influence of holistic/analytic style on students’ behavioral performances in the classroom.
The question of whether perception is analytic or wholistic is an enduring issue in psychology. The global-precedence hypothesis, considered by many as a modern version of the Gestaltist claim about the perceptual primacy of wholes, has generated a large body of research, but the debate still remains very active. This article reviews the research within the global/local paradigm and critically analyzes the assumptions underlyling this paradigm. The extent to which this line of research contributes to understanding the role of wholistic processing on object perception is discussed. It is concluded that one should be very cautious in making inferences about wholistic processing from the processing advantage of the global level of stimulus structure. A distinction is proposed between global properties, defined by their position in the hierarchical structure of the stimulus, and wholistic properties, defined as a function of interrelations among component parts. It is suggested that a direct comparison between processing of wholistic and component properties is needed to support the hypothesis about the perceptual primacy of wholistic processing.
The preference-supporting bias in information evaluation, known as information distortion, is a ubiquitous phenomenon. The present work demonstrates that priming a relational mindset induces individuals to process independent units of information interdependently and therefore contributes to increasing distortion. In three studies, a relational mindset is activated by asking participants to generate solutions to cross-domain analogies. All three studies show that the activation of a relational mindset then carries over into a second, unrelated choice task and increases distortion. In addition, the present work shows that generating solutions to cross-domain analogies activates a high level of construal, which in turn mediates the effect of relational thinking on information distortion. Finally, the present work also demonstrates that imposing a cognitive load during the choice task reduces the impact of the relational mindset on distortion. In sum, this research demonstrates that the same mechanism that promotes creative thinking (i.e., seeing relationships across concepts) may also induce more biased information processing by prompting individuals to process independent units of information interdependently.
Though most environmental problems involve causes and consequences on a global scale, relatively little is known about the role of distance in relation to a person’s willingness to take action. Based on an extended version of Schwartz’ norm activation model, we examined the impact of perceived socio-spatial distance on adolescents' willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior (WPEB). Comparing two samples that referred to either a national (n = 468) or a socio-spatially distant location (n = 470), we found no significant difference in WPEB. Multiple-group structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that the adolescents in the distance sample demonstrated a greater awareness of biospheric consequences, while at the same time perceiving less behavioral control and increased helplessness about undertaking actions to counter environmental problems. We provide an outline of theoretical and empirical considerations regarding the role of distance as well as educational implications for fostering WPEB in a globalized world.
Research on perception and cognition suggests that whereas East Asians view the world holistically, attending to the entire field and relations among objects, Westerners view the world analytically, focusing on the attributes of salient objects. These propositions were examined in the change-blindness paradigm. Research in that paradigm finds American participants to be more sensitive to changes in focal objects than to changes in the periphery or context. We anticipated that this would be less true for East Asians and that they would be more sensitive to context changes than would Americans. We presented participants with still photos and with animated vignettes having changes in focal object information and contextual information. Compared to Americans, East Asians were more sensitive to contextual changes than to focal object changes. These results suggest that there can be cultural variation in what may seem to be basic perceptual processes.
G*Power (Erdfelder, Faul, & Buchner, 1996) was designed as a general stand-alone power analysis program for statistical tests commonly used in social and behavioral research. G*Power 3 is a major extension of, and improvement over, the previous versions. It runs on widely used computer platforms (i.e., Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4) and covers many different statistical tests of the t, F, and chi2 test families. In addition, it includes power analyses for z tests and some exact tests. G*Power 3 provides improved effect size calculators and graphic options, supports both distribution-based and design-based input modes, and offers all types of power analyses in which users might be interested. Like its predecessors, G*Power 3 is free.
People’s thoughts often go beyond what is right in front of them. In so doing, they mentally traverse psychological distance: They think about the past or the future, other places, other people, and wonder about the impossible. These four dimensions all tap into the same common construct of distancing from immediate experience. As a result, people associate each type of distance with the others and infer that anything far in one way will be far in all the other ways. Furthermore, distance causes further distance to shrink in the mind’s eye, even if in a different form than the first. We consider potential differences whereby certain distances might be understood in terms of other distances, and then we evaluate additional contenders that might qualify as distinct dimensions of distance in their own right. Throughout, we highlight implications of these principles for everyday judgment and decision making.
Research on environmental activism remains poorly integrated and ill-defined and to date, there has been little examination of the relationship of environmental activism, pro-environmental behaviour and social identity. 131 students from an Australian University (M = 25.04 years old, SD = 8.17) voluntarily participated by returning an anonymous questionnaire containing an environmental activism scale, a pro-environmental behaviour scale and a social identity scale. The results revealed that while there was a significant relationship between social identity and environmental behaviour, only the citizenship component of environmental behaviour significantly predicted environmental activism. In other words, the relationship between social identity and environmental activism was indirect. This research presents the opportunity for further exploration of these relationships and to further investigate their relationship to inter-group processes.
The idea that global structuring of a visual scene precedes analysis of local features is suggested, discussed, and tested. In the first two experiments subjects were asked to respond to an auditorily presented name of a letter while looking at a visual stimulus that consisted of a large character (the global level) made out of small characters (the local level). The subjects' auditory discrimination responses were subject to interference only by the global level and not by the local one. In Experiment 3 subjects were presented with large characters made out of small ones, and they had to recognize either just the large characters or just the small ones. Whereas the identity of the small characters had no effect on recognition of the large ones, global cues which conflicted with the local ones did inhibit the responses to the local level. In Experiment 4 subjects were asked to judge whether pairs of simple patterns of geometrical forms which were presented for a brief duration were the same or different. The patterns within a pair could differ either at the global or at the local level. It was found that global differences were detected more often than local differences.
The authors examined cultural preferences for formal versus intuitive reasoning among East Asian (Chinese and Korean), Asian American, and European American university students. We investigated categorization (Studies 1 and 2), conceptual structure (Study 3), and deductive reasoning (Studies 3 and 4). In each study a cognitive conflict was activated between formal and intuitive strategies of reasoning. European Americans, more than Chinese and Koreans, set aside intuition in favor of formal reasoning. Conversely, Chinese and Koreans relied on intuitive strategies more than European Americans. Asian Americans' reasoning was either identical to that of European Americans, or intermediate. Differences emerged against a background of similar reasoning tendencies across cultures in the absence of conflict between formal and intuitive strategies.
Avoiding dangerous climate change is one of the most urgent social risk issues we face today and understanding related public perceptions is critical to engaging the public with the major societal transformations required to combat climate change. Analyses of public perceptions have indicated that climate change is perceived as distant on a number of different dimensions. However, to date there has been no in-depth exploration of the psychological distance of climate change. This study uses a nationally representative British sample in order to systematically explore and characterize each of the four theorized dimensions of psychological distance--temporal, social, and geographical distance, and uncertainty--in relation to climate change. We examine how each of these different aspects of psychological distance relate to each other as well as to concerns about climate change and sustainable behavior intentions. Results indicate that climate change is both psychologically distant and proximal in relation to different dimensions. Lower psychological distance was generally associated with higher levels of concern, although perceived impacts on developing countries, as an indicator of social distance, was also significantly related to preparedness to act on climate change. Our findings clearly point to the utility of risk communication techniques designed to reduce psychological distance. However, highlighting the potentially very serious distant impacts of climate change may also be useful in promoting sustainable behavior, even among those already concerned.
We propose that people judge immoral acts as more offensive and moral acts as more virtuous when the acts are psychologically distant than near. This is because people construe more distant situations in terms of moral principles, rather than attenuating situation-specific considerations. Results of four studies support these predictions. Study 1 shows that more temporally distant transgressions (e.g., eating one's dead dog) are construed in terms of moral principles rather than contextual information. Studies 2 and 3 further show that morally offensive actions are judged more severely when imagined from a more distant temporal (Study 2) or social (Study 3) perspective. Finally, Study 4 shows that moral acts (e.g., adopting a disabled child) are judged more positively from temporal distance. The findings suggest that people more readily apply their moral principles to distant rather than proximal behaviors.
People directly experience only themselves here and now but often consider, evaluate, and plan situations that are removed in time or space, that pertain to others' experiences, and that are hypothetical rather than real. People thus transcend the present and mentally traverse temporal distance, spatial distance, social distance, and hypotheticality. We argue that this is made possible by the human capacity for abstract processing of information. We review research showing that there is considerable similarity in the way people mentally traverse different distances, that the process of abstraction underlies traversing different distances, and that this process guides the way people predict, evaluate, and plan near and distant situations.
The role of category salience in category-based induction was demonstrated in two ways: (i) temporarily increasing category salience facilitated category-based induction, and (ii) this effect was moderated by cultural differences that we predicted would be related to chronic category salience. Subjects for whom categories were presumed to be more accessible (Americans) were not as much influenced by manipulations to increase category salience as subjects who were presumed to have lower chronic accessibility of categories (Koreans). However, as anticipated, this pattern was reversed for inferences about behavioral properties of social categories. Due to the 'interdependent' nature of their culture, Koreans presumably have relatively higher chronic accessibility for social categories than do relatively 'independent' Americans, and hence were not influenced as much by increasing category salience.
We propose a reciprocal relation between regulatory-focus systems and global versus local processing styles-specifically, that global processing fits a promotion focus on advancement, whereas local processing fits a prevention focus on security. In Study 1, participants were shown large letters made of small letters and decided if either of two specific letters appeared on the screen. Strength of promotion focus was positively correlated with speed of processing global letters and negatively correlated with speed of processing local letters, whereas the reverse was true for strength of prevention focus. In Study 2, participants first worked on a global or local task and later chose between two objects. Consistent with our fit proposal, participants who had performed the global task assigned a higher price to their chosen object if they had chosen it in a promotive, eager manner than if they had chosen it in a preventive, vigilant manner, whereas the reverse was true for participants who had performed the local task.
There is recent evidence that perceptual processes are influenced by culture. Westerners tend to engage in context-independent and analytic perceptual processes by focusing on a salient object independently of its context, whereas Asians tend to engage in context-dependent and holistic perceptual processes by attending to the relationship between the object and the context in which the object is located. Recent research has explored mechanisms underlying such cultural differences, which indicate that participating in different social practices leads to both chronic as well as temporary shifts in perception. These findings establish a dynamic relationship between the cultural context and perceptual processes. We suggest that perception can no longer be regarded as consisting of processes that are universal across all people at all times.
Westerners' perceptions tend to focus on salient foreground objects, whereas Asians are more inclined to focus on contexts. We hypothesized that such culturally specific patterns of attention may be afforded by the perceptual environment of each culture. In order to test this hypothesis, we randomly sampled pictures of scenes from small, medium, and large cities in Japan and the United States. Using both subjective and objective measures, Study 1 demonstrated that Japanese scenes were more ambiguous and contained more elements than American scenes. Japanese scenes thus may encourage perception of the context more than American scenes. In Study 2, pictures of locations in cities were presented as primes, and participants' subsequent patterns of attention were measured. Both Japanese and American participants primed with Japanese scenes attended more to contextual information than did those primed with American scenes. These results provide evidence that culturally characteristic environments may afford distinctive patterns of perception.
Public risk perceptions can fundamentally compel or constrain political, economic, and social action to address particular risks. Public support or opposition to climate policies (e.g., treaties, regulations, taxes, subsidies) will be greatly influenced by public perceptions of the risks and dangers posed by global climate change. This article describes results from a national study (2003) that examined the risk perceptions and connotative meanings of global warming in the American mind and found that Americans perceived climate change as a moderate risk that will predominantly impact geographically and temporally distant people and places. This research also identified several distinct interpretive communities, including naysayers and alarmists, with widely divergent perceptions of climate change risks. Thus, "dangerous" climate change is a concept contested not only among scientists and policymakers, but among the American public as well.
The amount of money a person was willing to forgo in order to give 75 dollars to another person decreased as a hyperbolic function of the perceived social distance between them. Similar hyperbolic functions have previously been shown to describe both time and probability discounting.
This paper discusses the discounted utility (DU) model: its historical development, underlying assumptions, and "anomalies"--the empirical regularities that are inconsistent with its theoretical predictions. We then summarize the alternate theoretical formulations that have been advanced to address these anomalies. We also review three decades of empirical research on intertemporal choice, and discuss reasons for the spectacular variation in implicit discount rates across studies. Throughout the paper, we stress the importance of distinguishing time preference, per se, from many other considerations that also influence intertemporal choices.
The affect heuristic in judgments of risks and benefits
- Finucane
Cultural preferences for formal versus intuitive reasoning
- Norenzayan
The distributional impact of climate change on rich and poor countries
- Mendelsohn
Time discounting and time preference: A critical review
- Frederick