Thinking About Past Generations Could Help Us Tackle Climate Change

By Emily Reynolds Rhetoric around climate change often calls on us to think of future generations: if we don’t suffer the effects, then our children and our children’s children will. For some, this sense of obligation could be motivating. But for others, the distant time frame may be a barrier to truly grappling with the issue. Now, a new study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests one method to get people thinking about their duty to future generations is to think about the past. In their new paper, Hanne Watkins from the University of Massachusetts and Geoffrey Goodwin from the University of Pennsylvania suggest that reflecting on the actions of previous generations could cause a greater sense of “intergenerational reciprocity”: thinking about past sacrifices, in other words, could make us more likely to make sacrifices ourselves. At the moment, they argue, key decision makers are faced with a dilemma: their own interests conflict with the interests of future generations. Working out how to increase this intergenerational reciprocity, therefore, could be an important way to influence positive policymaking. To understand the impact our understanding of the past has on our actions in the future, 200 participants were first asked to respond to a writing prompt, which encouraged them to reflect on either the sacrifices made by previous generations (“which sacrifices made by members of past generations are most important in allowing you to enjoy your...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Decision making environmental Time Source Type: blogs