Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:33:21.950Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

When does deprivation motivate future-oriented thinking? The case of climate change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Adam R. Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Pomona College, Claremont, California 91711. [email protected]://research.pomona.edu/sci/
Sander van der Linden
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.psychol.cam.ac.uk/people/sander-van-der-linden/

Abstract

Pepper & Nettle overstate cross-domain evidence of present-oriented thinking among lower-socioeconomic-status (SES) groups and overlook key social and contextual drivers of temporal decision making. We consider psychological research on climate change – a quintessential intertemporal problem that implicates inequities and extrinsic mortality risk – documenting more future-oriented thinking among low- compared to high-SES groups.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agyeman, J., Bullard, R. D. & Evans, B. (2003) Just sustainabilities: Development in an unequal world. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Akerlof, K. L., Delamater, P. L., Boules, C. R., Upperman, C. R. & Mitchell, C. S. (2016) Vulnerable populations perceive their health as at risk from climate change. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 12(12):15419–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohr, J. (2014) Public views on the dangers and importance of climate change: Predicting climate change beliefs in the United States through income moderated by party identification. Climatic Change 126(1–2):217–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, M., Hsiang, S. M. & Miguel, E. (2015) Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production. Nature 527(7577):235–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Callan, M. J., Ellard, J. H., Shead, N. W. & Hodgins, D. C. (2008) Gambling as a search for justice: Examining the role of personal relative deprivation in gambling urges and gambling behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34(11):1514–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Callan, M. J., Kim, H., Gheorghiu, A. I. & Matthews, W. J. (2016) The interrelations between social class, personal relative deprivation, and prosociality. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 110. Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1948550616673877.Google Scholar
Dietz, T., Dan, A. & Shwom, R. (2007) Support for climate change policy: Social psychological and social structural influences. Rural Sociology 72(2):185214.Google Scholar
Feygina, I., Jost, J. T. & Goldsmith, R. E. (2010) System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of “system-sanctioned change.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(3):326–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hauser, O. P., Rand, D. G., Peysakhovich, A. & Nowak, M. A. (2014) Cooperating with the future. Nature 511(7508):220–23.Google Scholar
Hennes, E. P., Ruisch, B. C., Feygina, I., Monteiro, C. A. & Jost, J. T. (2016) Motivated recall in the service of the economic system: The case of anthropogenic climate change. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 145(6):755–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leiserowitz, A. (2006) Climate change risk perception and policy preferences: The role of affect, imagery, and values. Climatic Change 77(1):4572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leiserowitz, A. & Akerlof, K. (2010) Race, ethnicity and public responses to climate change. Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. Yale University.Google Scholar
Macias, T. (2016) Environmental risk perception among race and ethnic groups in the United States. Ethnicities 16(1):111–29.Google Scholar
McCright, A. M. & Dunlap, R. E. (2011) Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States. Global Environmental Change 21(4):1163–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morin, R. (2012) Rising share of Americans see conflict between rich and poor. Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Pearson, A. R., Ballew, M. T., Naiman S. & Schuldt, J. P. (2017) Race, class, gender and climate change communication. In: Oxford research encyclopedia of climate science, ed. Von Storch, H.. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.412.Google Scholar
Sandvik, H. (2008) Public concern over global warming correlates negatively with national wealth. Climatic Change 90(3):333–41.Google Scholar
Semenza, J. C., Hall, D. E., Wilson, D. J., Bontempo, B. D., Sailor, D. J. & George, L. A. (2008) Public perception of climate change: Voluntary mitigation and barriers to behavior change. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 35(5):479–87.Google Scholar
Stokes, B., Wike, R. & Carle, J. (2015) Global concern about climate change, broad support for limiting emissions. Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Uslaner, E. M. & Brown, M. (2005) Inequality, trust, and civic engagement. American Politics Research 33(6):868–94.Google Scholar
van Zomeren, M., Postmes, T. & Spears, R. (2008) Toward an integrative social identity model of collective action: A quantitative research synthesis of three socio-psychological perspectives. Psychological Bulletin 134(4):504–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, C. & McCright, A. M. (2012) Explaining gender differences in concern about environmental problems in the United States. Society & Natural Resources 25(11):1067–84.Google Scholar