Conveners
Symposium: What can Emotions contribute to Sustainable Behavior?
- Helen Landmann (Universität Klagenfurt)
Description
People can feel fear of climate change, guilt about flying, compassion for victims of natural disasters, and be emotionally moved by climate protests. All these emotions predict pro-environmental behaviour. Thus, emotions seem to play an important role in sustainability. This symposium focuses on these links between emotions and sustainable behaviour. Eva Hofmann, Katja Corcoran and Kathrin Röderer present research that tested the role of emotions and related variables on household energy consumption. Tatjana Kwasny, Sarah Marth, Barbara Hartl and Petra Riefler focus on the effects of cognitive dissonance and negative emotions on meat consumption. In a related vein, Janet Kleber, Johanna Palcu, Martin Schreier, Chris Janiszewski and Anthony Salerno present intervention studies that reduced negative emotions about eating insect-based foods and the willingness to try these foods. These studies show that emotions predict energy and meat consumption. To shed light on the causal effects of emotions, Frank Eckerle presents a review and meta-analysis of the effects of emotion-based interventions on sustainable behaviour. Building on this evidence, Helen Landmann presents a model of affect generalisation that explains why emotions only sometimes directly influence behaviour. Taken together, these contributions advance our understanding of the potential of emotions for sustainable behaviour.
Not only policy makers and industries but also consumers are aware that energy consumption needs to be reduced. We use the Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action (SIMPEA; Fritsche et al., 2018) as framework to find a solution to the problem. The SIMPEA highlights how appraisal of an environmental problem, over collective emotions and social cognitions impacts environmental action....
Reducing meat consumption and transitioning to plant-based diets are recognized as crucial to tackle climate change. Concern for animal welfare can reduce meat consumption by activating cognitive dissonance, which may also arise from environmental concerns associated with meat consumption. Yet, there is a lag in empirical research examining the effect of such interventions on reduced meat...
There is increasing acknowledgement that the environmental impact of the current global food supply system is unsustainable. Entomophagy—the consumption of insects as food—is gaining attention as a viable, sustainable food alternative. Yet, despite shifting positive attitudes towards entomophagy and supportive regulatory guidelines, few Westerners integrate insect-based food into their diet...
How we feel about climate change determines our judgments and motivational tendencies on whether and how to react. A range of negative and positive emotions about climate change have been found that correlate positively with various pro-environmental behaviors. Moreover, scholars who are interested in designing effective emotion-based interventions and climate messages are hard at work trying...
Evidence for the causal effects of emotions on pro-environmental behaviour is mixed. Experimentally manipulated emotions can increase pro-environmental behavioural intentions, but these effects are small, depend on individual differences, and diminish with time. The model of affect generalisation may explain this. According to this model, repeated experiences of episodic affect (emotions) can...
People can feel fear of climate change, guilt about flying, compassion for victims of natural disasters, and be emotionally moved by climate protests. All these emotions predict pro-environmental behaviour. Thus, emotions seem to play an important role in sustainability. This symposium focuses on these links between emotions and sustainable behaviour. Eva Hofmann, Katja Corcoran and Kathrin...
