Myopic about climate change: Cognitive style, psychological distance, and environmentalism

Abstract

Recent literature shows a negative relation between psychological distance of climate change and pro-environmental behavioral intentions: when climate change is perceived as a distant phenomenon in time and space, people are less prone to worry and, thus, to act. The present study explored under which conditions psychological distance proved to be effective on ecological attitudes. More specifically the research explored the interaction between climate change psychological distance and individual's cognitive style (holistic vs. analytic) on pro-environmental attitudes. Across two studies, the results consistently showed that psychological distance is strongly related to environmental concerns when individuals adopt an analytic cognitive style. By contrast, when individuals are in a holistic mindset, psychological distance proved to be less effective on ecological attitudes and behavioral intentions. Taken together, our findings have relevant practical implications for environmental politics and communication strategies.