Turning Restriction Into Change: Imagine-Self Perspective Taking Fosters Advocacy of a Mandatory Proenvironmental Initiative.

climate change environmental attitude environmental policy imagine-self perspective taking restriction

Journal

Frontiers in psychology
ISSN: 1664-1078
Titre abrégé: Front Psychol
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 101550902

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2019
Historique:
received: 23 08 2019
accepted: 11 11 2019
entrez: 19 12 2019
pubmed: 19 12 2019
medline: 19 12 2019
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Mandatory policies are needed to mitigate environmental problems but often elicit resistance if individuals perceive them as freedom restrictions. Encouraging people to take the perspective of individuals who suffer from environmental problems may help increase support. This should especially be the case with imagine-self as opposed to imagine-other perspective taking, because the former elicits more personal involvement than the latter. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two studies in which we announced the introduction of a voluntary vs. a mandatory proenvironmental initiative and asked people to take an imagine-self vs. imagine-other perspective on an individual, who suffers from human-caused environmental problems. The imagine-self condition increased the support of mandatory compared to voluntary initiatives. In addition, we found an influence of environmental attitude: the mandatory initiatives received higher support than voluntary initiatives by environmentally minded individuals. These findings highlight imagine-self perspective taking as a potentially useful tool for implementing proenvironmental policies.

Identifiants

pubmed: 31849771
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02657
pmc: PMC6895749
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

2657

Subventions

Organisme : Austrian Science Fund FWF
ID : P 27457
Pays : Austria

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2019 Uhl-Haedicke, Klackl, Muehlberger and Jonas.

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Auteurs

Isabella Uhl-Haedicke (I)

Environmental Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

Johannes Klackl (J)

Social Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

Christina Muehlberger (C)

Social Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

Eva Jonas (E)

Social Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

Classifications MeSH