IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/irn/wpaper/18-05.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Après nous le déluge? Perceived distance of climate change impacts and pro-environmental behaviour

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Volland

Abstract

This research addresses the role of perceived distance of climate change impacts as an antecedent of pro-environmental behaviour using data from a large, representative survey. Doing so, it complements existing research that has largely concentrated on environmental concerns, beliefs and behavioural intentions. Focusing on temporal and spatial distance dimensions, it finds that differences in perceptions are reflected in differences in self-reported pro-environmental behaviours but that the relevance of perceived distance rapidly vanishes as this distance increases. Little systematic evidence emerges that individuals take climate impacts into account when these impacts are not anticipated to produce personal consequences. Some implications for the promotion of pro-environmental behaviour relying on "proximising" climate change impacts are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Volland, 2018. "Après nous le déluge? Perceived distance of climate change impacts and pro-environmental behaviour," IRENE Working Papers 18-05, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:irn:wpaper:18-05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www5.unine.ch/RePEc/ftp/irn/pdfs/WP18-05.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chai, Andreas & Bradley, Graham & Lo, Alex & Reser, Joseph, 2015. "What time to adapt? The role of discretionary time in sustaining the climate change value–action gap," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 95-107.
    2. Marc Daube & David Ulph, 2016. "Moral Behaviour, Altruism and Environmental Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 505-522, February.
    3. Lydia Lawless & Andreas Drichoutis & Rodolfo Nayga, 2013. "Time preferences and health behaviour: a review," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Alexa Spence & Wouter Poortinga & Nick Pidgeon, 2012. "The Psychological Distance of Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 957-972, June.
    5. repec:cup:judgdm:v:4:y:2009:i:1:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Singh, Ajay S. & Zwickle, Adam & Bruskotter, Jeremy T. & Wilson, Robyn, 2017. "The perceived psychological distance of climate change impacts and its influence on support for adaptation policy," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 93-99.
    7. Busic-Sontic, Ante & Czap, Natalia V. & Fuerst, Franz, 2017. "The role of personality traits in green decision-making," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 313-328.
    8. Lange, Ian & Moro, Mirko & Traynor, Laura, 2014. "Green hypocrisy?: Environmental attitudes and residential space heating expenditure," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 76-83.
    9. J. W. Bolderdijk & L. Steg & E. S. Geller & P. K. Lehman & T. Postmes, 2013. "Comparing the effectiveness of monetary versus moral motives in environmental campaigning," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(4), pages 413-416, April.
    10. Elena Gouskova & Ngina Chiteji & Frank Stafford, 2010. "Pension Participation: Do Parents Transmit Time Preference?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 138-150, June.
    11. Charlotte Jones & Donald W. Hine & Anthony D. G. Marks, 2017. "The Future is Now: Reducing Psychological Distance to Increase Public Engagement with Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 331-341, February.
    12. Armin Falk & Anke Becker & Thomas Dohmen & Benjamin Enke & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2018. "Global Evidence on Economic Preferences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(4), pages 1645-1692.
    13. Volland, Benjamin, 2017. "The role of risk and trust attitudes in explaining residential energy demand: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 14-30.
    14. Robert L. Clark & Robert G. Hammond & Christelle Khalaf, 2019. "Planning for Retirement? The Importance of Time Preferences," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 127-150, June.
    15. Shane Frederick & George Loewenstein & Ted O'Donoghue, 2002. "Time Discounting and Time Preference: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 351-401, June.
    16. Hannon, Bruce, 1994. "Sense of place: geographic discounting by people, animals and plants," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 157-174, July.
    17. Stefano Giglio & Matteo Maggiori & Johannes Stroebel, 2015. "Editor's Choice Very Long-Run Discount Rates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 1-53.
    18. Kruti M. Vekaria & Kristin M. Brethel-Haurwitz & Elise M. Cardinale & Sarah A. Stoycos & Abigail A. Marsh, 2017. "Social discounting and distance perceptions in costly altruism," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(5), pages 1-7, May.
    19. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    20. Charles Perrings & Bruce Hannon, 2001. "An Introduction to Spatial Discounting," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 23-38, February.
    21. Julian L. Simon, 1995. "Interpersonal Allocation Continuous with Intertemporal Allocation," Rationality and Society, , vol. 7(4), pages 367-392, October.
    22. Timothy Richards & Gareth Green, 2015. "Environmental Choices and Hyperbolic Discounting: An Experimental Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 62(1), pages 83-103, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heinz, Nicolai & Koessler, Ann-Kathrin & Engel, Stefanie, 2021. "Distance to climate change consequences reduces willingness to engage in low-cost mitigation actions – Results from an experimental online study from Germany," EconStor Preprints 246815, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Epper & Ernst Fehr & Helga Fehr-Duda & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & David Dreyer Lassen & Søren Leth-Petersen & Gregers Nytoft Rasmussen, 2020. "Time Discounting and Wealth Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(4), pages 1177-1205, April.
    2. Marieka M. Klawitter & C. Leigh Anderson & Mary Kay Gugerty, 2013. "Savings And Personal Discount Rates In A Matched Savings Program For Low-Income Families," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(3), pages 468-485, July.
    3. Seth Baum & William Easterling, 2010. "Space-time discounting in climate change adaptation," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 591-609, August.
    4. Preston Greene, 2024. "Social bias, not time bias," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 23(1), pages 100-121, February.
    5. Uttara Balakrishnan & Johannes Haushofer & Pamela Jakiela, 2020. "How soon is now? Evidence of present bias from convex time budget experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(2), pages 294-321, June.
    6. Pablo Brañas-Garza & Diego Jorrat & Antonio M. Espín & Angel Sánchez, 2023. "Paid and hypothetical time preferences are the same: lab, field and online evidence," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(2), pages 412-434, April.
    7. Kopsacheilis, Orestis & Goerg, Sebastian J., 2023. "Order Effects in Eliciting Preferences," IZA Discussion Papers 16343, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Preuss, Malte, 2021. "Intra-individual stability of two survey measures on forward-looking attitude," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 201-227.
    9. D. Liliana González-Hernández & Raúl A. Aguirre-Gamboa & Erik W. Meijles, 2023. "The role of climate change perceptions and sociodemographics on reported mitigation efforts and performance among households in northeastern Mexico," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1853-1875, February.
    10. Julia Ihli, Hanna & Chiputwa, Brian & Winter, Etti & Gassner, Anja, 2022. "Risk and time preferences for participating in forest landscape restoration: The case of coffee farmers in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    11. Harmsen - van Hout, M.J.W. & Dellaert, B.G.C. & Herings, P.J.J., 2008. "Behavorial effects in individual decisions of network formation," Research Memorandum 019, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    12. Meifen Wu & Ruyin Long & Hong Chen & Jiaqi Wang, 2023. "The influence of risk perception on climate change communication behavior: a dual perspective of psychological distance and environmental values," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 118(1), pages 785-806, August.
    13. Dániel Horn & Hubert János Kiss, 2020. "Time preferences and their life outcome correlates: Evidence from a representative survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-26, July.
    14. Groh, Elke D. & Ziegler, Andreas, 2020. "On the relevance of economic preferences, values, norms, and socio-demographics for electricity consumption," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224587, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Guan, Lijun & Huang, Zuhui & Jin, Shaosheng, 2022. "Time preference and nutrition label use: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    16. Mary Guillard & Ghozlane Fleury-Bahi & Oscar Navarro, 2021. "Encouraging Individuals to Adapt to Climate Change: Relations between Coping Strategies and Psychological Distance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, January.
    17. repec:wsi:acsxxx:v:21:y:2018:i:08:n:s0219525918500182 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. McDonald, R.L. & Chilton, S.M. & Jones-Lee, M.W. & Metcalf, H.R.T., 2017. "Evidence of variable discount rates and non-standard discounting in mortality risk valuation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 152-167.
    19. Chiara Pastore & Stefanie Schurer & Agnieszka Tymula & Nicholas Fuller & Ian Caterson, 2023. "Economic preferences and obesity: Evidence from a clinical lab‐in‐field study," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(9), pages 2147-2167, September.
    20. Fuhrmann-Riebel, Hanna & D'Exelle, Ben & Verschoor, Arjan, 2021. "The role of preferences for pro-environmental behaviour among urban middle class households in Peru," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    21. Pastore, Chiara & Schurer, Stefanie & Tymula, Agnieszka & Fuller, Nicholas & Caterson, Ian, 2020. "Economic Preferences and Obesity: Evidence from a Clinical Lab-in-Field Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 13915, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Psychological distance; Discounting; Proenvironmental behaviour; UK;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:irn:wpaper:18-05. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siwar Khelifa (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/irenech.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.