A new study suggests collective guilt can inspire action, but only if people feel reasonably hopeful that things can get better. The study, based on questionnaires to ~150 undergraduate students, also found that guilt was a more effective emotion in encouraging mitigation behavior than anxiety. The article is titled Collective guilt mediates the effect of beliefs about global warming on willingness to engage in mitigation behavior and is in press at the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
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Jennifer Jacquet is a postdoctoral research fellow working with Dr. Daniel Pauly and the Sea Around Us Project at the UBC Fisheries Centre. As a kid, she read 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth and would come to discover that while those 50 things were indeed simple, saving the Earth was not.
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Collective Guilt and Climate Change
Category: Guilt
Posted on: December 19, 2009 3:21 PM, by Jennifer L. Jacquet
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Comments
No problem here, I'm carrying plenty. These days, every action I take is preceded by an analysis of the consequences for the environment and the planet. I'm doing everything I can to mitigate my impact, sometime under a burden of depression. Will it make a difference? Watching the behavior of some of my fellow Americans around me, I'm doubtful. I don't know how some people live with themselves.
Posted by: JJ | December 19, 2009 4:57 PM
Are students really representative sample of the population?
Posted by: romunov | December 19, 2009 5:26 PM
sounds interesting, but i couldn't find the full .pdf... i agree with romunov, students seem to be the most optimistic (idealistic maybe more fitting...naive?) about global change and sampling strictly undergraduates seems misleading.
"As suspected, people who felt that warming impacts were minor and fixable felt more guilt than people who believed that warming impacts would be severe. They were also more willing to do something about it."
i am more compelled to action through my belief and associated guilt of imminent and severe warming impacts. seeing headlines like "90% of fish stocks gone by 2050," it seems that the media and scientists to a degree work the doomsday angle thoroughly, not just to move units but to entice action.
Posted by: will b | December 20, 2009 5:09 AM
I don't think the media or some scientists gross distortion of science helps any situation - it makes people worried and worried people aren't good for much except worrying.
Posted by: jim | December 21, 2009 12:33 AM
Will it make a difference? Watching the behavior of some of my fellow Americans around me, I'm doubtful. I don't know how some people live with themselves.
Posted by: osmanlı iksiri | December 29, 2009 6:55 AM
Have you looked at FEASTARIAN ? For healthy eating and saving the planet have a feast.
By changing the way we think about our food and when we eat it, we can make a real difference.
It is not just buying the right fish, it is making it special and only occasionally [if we eat fish at all].
A Feastarian only eats fish or meat up to a maximum of three times a week.
We are encouraging everyone to take this simple step of eating less meat and fish as an immediate way of making a difference to a sustainable planet.
This is a way of making a positive difference through our choice of foods.
Please have a look at the website www.feastarian.org
Posted by: Dick Daniel | January 16, 2010 10:44 AM
It is not just buying the right fish, it is making it special and only occasionally [if we eat fish at all].
A Feastarian only eats fish or meat up to a maximum of three times a week.
Posted by: geciktirici | November 30, 2010 3:53 AM