Climate Change, Environmental Decision-Making, and Social Dilemmas from a Psychological Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental challenges that have dire consequences for human and non-human life, including climate change, are becoming increasingly urgent, and solutions have not kept pace [1]. Solutions must be accelerated at every level of society—individually, institutionally, and internationally. At the individual-level, solutions include mitigation behaviors, such as sustainable food choices, energy and water use, reducing consumerism and waste, supporting pro-environmental policies and collective actions. Key solutions also include promotion of adaptation behaviors like natural disaster preparedness, home improvement and insulation efforts, and promoting adaptive community spaces like shade gardens. Many decisions regarding climate-friendly behavior operate in the context of social dilemmas. In these dilemmas, people face tradeoffs between various behavioral options, often experiencing tension between current and future consequences and between self and other’s/collective consequences. However, these tensions can also motivate change: participating in climate-related social dilemma simulations was found to increase pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors [2]. 

We join others in calling for more work to identify ways to harness the insights and applications of psychology to help environmentally sustainable behavior flourish. Psychology is uniquely poised to examine variables that allow for cross-level analysis between situational/contextual factors (e.g., social dilemmas, information framing, feedback, social norms, group values) and individual/dispositional factors (e.g., affect, values, identity, self-efficacy, political orientation) [3]. We invite empirical, theoretical, and systematic review papers addressing the psychology of social dilemmas and environmental decision making, especially those with a focus on synergizing multiple aspects of sustainability toward mitigation and adaptation.

1. IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;  Pörtner, H.-O.; Roberts, D.C.; Tignor, M.; Poloczanska, E.S.; Mintenbeck, K.; Alegría, A.; Craig, M.; Langsdorf, S.; Löschke, S.; Möller, V.; Okem, A.; Rama, B., Eds.; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK; New York, NY, USA; p. 3056. https://doi:10.1017/9781009325844.
2. Druen, P.B.; Zawadzki, S.J. Escaping the Climate Trap: Participation in a Climate-Specific Social Dilemma Simulation Boosts Climate-Protective Motivation and Actions. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9438. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169438.
3. Swim, J.K.; Stern, P.C.; Doherty, T.J.; Clayton, S.; Reser, J.P.; Weber, E.U.; Gifford, R.; Howard, G.S. Psychology's contributions to understanding and addressing global climate change. American Psychologist 2011, 66, 241–250. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023220.

Prof. Dr. Perri B. Druen
Guest Editor

Stephanie Johnson Zawadzki
Guest Editor Assistant

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• psychology
• climate change
• social dilemma
• sustainability
• environmental challenges
• adaptation
• mitigation

Title: Group-Based Climate Storytelling Increases Capacity for Collective Action
Authors: Manning, C.M., Roll, M., Toledo Alcarraz, M., Campbell, R., Armony, I., Amel, E., and Harris, J.
Affiliation: Macalester College, Minneapolis, United States
Abstract: Even as the impacts of climate change become more devastating, the United States is not reducing its greenhouse gas emissions at the pace recommended by scientists. To achieve climate stability, people must engage with the issue, and become motivated to not only make changes in their individual lives (e.g., shifting their diet or transportation choices) but, more importantly, to join with others and push for broad transformations in policy, infrastructure, and industrial and economic systems. Climate communication researchers suggest that storytelling, the sharing of experiences or ideas through narratives that create meaning and evoke emotion, is an overlooked but powerful method for mobilizing people for climate action. To explore the potential of storytelling to move people toward action on climate change, we collaborated with a Minnesota-based non-profit, Change Narrative, LLC, and administered surveys to a diverse group of participants across several two-part climate storytelling workshops. Prior to the first workshop, participants answered survey questions about climate-relevant beliefs, perceptions, emotions and intentions. One week later, after developing their own brief climate story and sharing it as part of an hour-long climate storytelling slam, they responded to the same set of questions. After taking part in a climate storytelling workshop, people experienced stronger positive emotions (e.g., hope), lower feelings of powerlessness, higher sense of efficacy, and greater intention to get involved in political action to address climate change. The findings align with many of the predictions of the social identity model of pro-environmental action (SIMPEA), a model that explains participation in collective environmental action.