Examining How Projections About the Future of Society Are Related to Present-Day Climate Change Action

Authors

  • Taciano L Milfont Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research School of Psychology Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington, New Zealand
  • Paul G Bain University of Queensland, Australia
  • Roosevelt V. L. Souza Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil
  • Valdiney V Gouveia Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil
  • Yoshihisa Kashima University of Melbourne, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2014.3.17336

Keywords:

Climate change, future thinking, environmental citizenship, collective futures.

Abstract

Global climate change will affect all domains of person-environment relations. Tackling climate change will require social change that can be motivated by people’s imaginings of the future of their society where such social change has occurred. We use the “collective futures” framework to examine whether beliefs about the future of society are related to present-day intentions to take climate change action. Participants from two Brazilian samples imagined their society in 2050 where climate change was mitigated and then rated how this future society would differ from Brazilian society today in terms of societal-level dysfunction and development and personal-level traits and values. To the extent that participants believed preventing climate change would result in societal development and more competence traits, they were more willing to engage in environmental citizenship activities. Individual differences in future time perspective also impacted environmental citizenship intention. Societal development and consideration of future consequences seem to be distinct routes by which future thinking influence climate change action.

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Published

2014-10-30

How to Cite

Milfont, T. L., Bain, P. G., Souza, R. V. L., Gouveia, V. V., & Kashima, Y. (2014). Examining How Projections About the Future of Society Are Related to Present-Day Climate Change Action. Psico, 45(3), 359–368. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-8623.2014.3.17336

Issue

Vol. 45 No. 3 (2014): Dossier: Environmental Psychology

Section

Pro-environmental Behavioral and Sustainability

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