The Reference Object And Subjective Time Perception In Imagining Future Climate Change Affecting Pro-environmental Behavior

Imagining the future allows people to project themselves into the future and experience future events in advance.This is the basis for humans to foresee,plan and shape any specific future events.This ability has adaptive value and enables people to act flexibly in the current and make decisions about future events and increase the chance of survival in the future.Climate change refers to long-term changes in weather patterns observed for at least a few decades that are considered remote in space and time.Previous studies have found that participating in the imagination of future climate change will bring closer the psychological distance,which will help improve the risk perception of climate change.The continuous reduction of the cognitive distance of climate change will lead to more positive attitudes and behaviors in response to climate change.However,the current research has not examined the psychological mechanism by which imagining the future influences pro-environment behavior.Based on the self-projection theory and the construal level theory,this study explores the influence of reference objects and subjective time perception on pro-environmental behavior in imagining future climate change.In study 1,179 college students were asked to imagine future climate change with different reference objects and their pro-environmental behaviors.Single factor completely random design,independent variable is the reference object(imagine yourself,imagine mother,imagine stranger),dependent variable is pro-environment behavior intention.For the first time,we found a self-referential pro-environmental effect in imagining future climate change.Self-referential imagining of future climate change produced more pro-environmental behavioral intentions than strangers’ imagining of future climate change.In study 2,a survey and an experimental study were conducted to further explore the effects of different reference objects and subjective time perception on proenvironmental behavior in imagining future climate change.In study 2a,848 people in China were surveyed by using a self-designed climate change scenario questionnaire.The purpose of the survey was to understand Chinese people’s perception of the likely time point of occurrence of climate change-related risk events and the time point of occurrence of serious climate change in the future.The results showed that whether it is to imagine the time point of future climate change or the time point of severe climate change in the future,the dividing line is the next 20 years.About 50% of people imagine that future climate change will occur within 20 years.In addition,50% of people imagine that future climate change will occur in the next 20 years.In study 2b,the effects of different reference objects and subjective time perception on pro-environment behavior of 166 college students in imagining future climate change were further investigated by using the Imagining Future Task Paraegm.The experiment used a mixed design of 3(reference subjects:imagine yourself,imagine mother,imagine stranger)× 2(subjective time perception:close distance "in one year",long distance "in 20 years"),in which subjective time perception was the intra-subject variable,the reference subjects was the inter-subject variable,and the dependent variable was the pro-environment behavioral intention.The results showed that imagining the long-distance future climate change produces more pro-environmental behavior intentions than imagining the short-distance future climate change.The "self-referencing pro-environmental effect" exists under the condition of the subjective sense of time imagining the long distance in the future.The study drew the following conclusions:(1)In imagining future climate change,individuals have a "self-referential proenvironmental effect".Compared with imagining strangers’ future climate change events,individuals will have more pro-environmental behaviors when imagining their own future climate change events.Moreover,the effect exists under the subjective time perception condition of imagining the distant future.(2)As for the time point when Chinese people imagine the future climate change and the time point when serious climate change will happen in the future,both take the next 20 years as the dividing line.About 50% people think it will happen in the next20 years,and the other 50% think it will happen in the next 20 years.(3)Compared with imagining climate change in the next year(close distance),imagining climate change in the next 20 years(long distance)resulted in more proenvironmental behavior intentions.(4)The subjective perception of time moderated the influence of imagining future climate change with different reference objects on pro-environmental behavior intentions.Compared with imagining the future within 1 year,imagining the future 20 years later has a greater influence on pro-environmental behavior.