When A+B < A: Cognitive Bias in Experts' Judgment of Environmental Impact

When 'environmentally friendly' items are added to a set of conventional items, people report that the total set will have a lower environmental impact even though the actual impact increases. One hypothesis is that this "negative footprint illusion" arises because people, who are susceptible to the illusion, lack necessary knowledge of the item's actual environmental impact, perhaps coupled with a lack of mathematical skills. The study reported here addressed this hypothesis by recruiting participants ('experts') from a master's program in energy systems, who thus have bachelor degrees in energy-related fields including academic training in mathematics. They were asked to estimate the number of trees needed to compensate for the environmental burden of two sets of buildings: one set of 150 buildings with conventional energy ratings and one set including the same 150 buildings but also 50 'green' (energy-efficient) buildings. The experts reported that less trees were needed to compensate for the set with 150 conventional and 50 'green' buildings compared to the set with only the 150 conventional buildings. This negative footprint illusion was as large in magnitude for the experts as it was for a group of novices without academic training in energy-related fields. We conclude that people are not immune to the negative footprint illusion even when they have the knowledge necessary to make accurate judgments

Why People Harm the Environment Although They Try to Treat It Well: An Evolutionary-Cognitive Perspective on Climate Compensation

Anthropogenic climate changes stress the importance of understanding why people harm the environment despite their attempts to behave in climate friendly ways. This paper argues that one reason behind why people do this is that people apply heuristics, originally shaped to handle social exchange, on the issues of environmental impact. Reciprocity and balance in social relations have been fundamental to social cooperation, and thus to survival, and therefore the human brain has become specialized by natural selection to compute and seek this balance. When the same reasoning is applied to environment-related behaviors, people tend to think in terms of a balance between “environmentally friendly” and “harmful” behaviors, and to morally account for the average of these components rather than the sum. This balancing heuristic leads to compensatory green beliefs and negative footprint illusions—the misconceptions that “green” choices can compensate for unsustainable ones. “Eco-guilt” from imbalance in the moral environmental account may promote pro-environmental acts, but also acts that are seemingly pro-environmental but in reality more harmful than doing nothing at all. Strategies for handling problems caused by this cognitive insufficiency are discussed

Servants and masters: an activity theory investigation of human-AI roles in the performance of work

Organizations considering AI adoption must be mindful of media that portrays dystopian future scenarios. While machine sentience remains philosophically and ethically moot, the future implications of AI adoption are unclear. The issues that surround AI adoption need to be examined but there are a lack of implementations cases around which empirical research can be undertaken and practical experience can be gained. AI adoption needs to be considered from multiple viewpoints including, but not necessarily limited to the social, ethical and legal issues, and not merely be reduced to questions of financial return or organizational efficiency

What matters more—the ‘literariness’ of a story, or what a reader thinks it is? Exploring the Influence of Genre Expectations on Transportation and Empathy

University of Minnesota Final Project. Spring 2017. Degree: Master of Liberal Studies. Advisors: Jennifer Caruso, and Panayiota Kendeou. 1 computer fileAs a tool for understanding, narrative is fundamental to human cognition. A wealth of theory and growing empirical evidence strongly indicate that reading a narrative activates a simulation with critical cognitive and emotional components. Importantly, these components have been linked to prosocial outcomes, such as empathy and transportation. While there is growing experimental support that reading narratives entails a simulated experience that involves transportation, the conditions under which reading leads to improvements in empathy remains understudied. This thesis applies a cognitive and narrative based approach in order to ask: What matters more? “Literary” features of a text, or the genre expectation a reader brings into a text? To answer this question, this thesis examines whether genre expectations and text genre—in combination or independently—influence participants’ empathy, transportation and comprehension. Overall, the results of two experiments bring to light the role of genre expectation in processing fiction and nonfiction texts and suggest genre expectation is an important factor that future studies should take into account when investigating the reading experience. By considering the study results in the framework of narratology, this thesis also addresses the theoretical foundations of the division between fiction and nonfiction. Specifically, this project reflects on the implications of how and why the reader’s use of disbelief has changed since the novel’s arrival due to the increasingly blurred boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, and their respective claims to truth

SENSIBILITA’ ED EMPATIA AMBIENTALE: IMPLICAZIONI PER PROMUOVERE IL CAMBIAMENTO IN DIREZIONE ECOSOSTENIBILE.

Il rapporto tra il genere umano e l'ambiente naturale è tanto ancestrale quanto controverso. È indiscusso il fenomeno della plant blindness, quale indifferenza nei confronti degli organismi vegetali, che si riflette a livello percettivo e cognitivo. È altrettanto diffusa la teoria della biofilia, che postula una predisposizione evoluzionistica ad affiliarsi all’ambiente naturale. Si sono susseguite molteplici concettualizzazioni spirituali e filosofiche circa la sensibilità ambientale, trascurando gli aspetti psicologici cognitivi ed emotivi dell'interazione con la natura. Esse sono riconducibili al costrutto psicologico di atteggiamenti verso l’ambiente. Sebbene gli studi relativi all’empatia di tratto e indotta siano esigui, sembra che i sentimenti di empatia e di compassione per le persone sofferenti si generalizzino anche alla distruzione ambientale, predicendo azioni benefiche per l’ambiente e per il clima. L’empatia e l’immersione nella natura sono strategie efficaci per il superamento della plant blindness e per il consolidamento di un contatto intimo con l’ambiente, che insieme all'educazione e alla competenza ambientali, fin dall'età infantile, costituiscono dei presupposti per i comportamenti pro ambiente privati e pubblici. Questi ultimi sono soggetti anche all'influenza moderatrice dei valori altruistici e biosferici, delle norme soggettive e dei tratti di personalità. Tuttavia, è di fatto evidente una discrepanza tra l’intenzione a rispettare l'ambiente e il comportamento effettivo. La mitigazione del cambiamento climatico è ostacolata da variabili psicologiche, come la distanza temporale e dal sé e l'utilizzo improprio di euristiche, che comporta errori di valutazione e, infine, una tendenza all’inazione. Nella letteratura scientifica è disponibile un’ampia gamma di strumenti di misura, prevalentemente self report ed espliciti, di cui solo uno valuta il costrutto di empatia di tratto. La mancanza di scale di controllo della desiderabilità sociale e della validazione italiana, ad eccezione della Pro-Environmental Behavior Scale, rende necessari progressi in questo campo. Nello scenario dell’attuale emergenza ambientale e climatica, gli psicologi, insieme ad altri professionisti e alle istituzioni sociali e politiche, secondo un approccio multidisciplinare e sinergico, devono implementare interventi atti a promuovere nei singoli un cambiamento, che culmini nell’adozione di uno stile di vita improntato all’ecosostenibilità.The relationship between humans and the natural environment is as ancestral as it is controversial. The phenomenon of plant blindness, as indifference to plant organisms, is undisputed and is reflected at the perceptual and cognitive level. Equally widespread is the theory of biophilia, which postulates an evolutionary predisposition to become affiliated with the natural environment. There have been many spiritual and philosophical conceptualisations of environmental sensitivity, neglecting the cognitive and emotional psychological aspects of interaction with nature. These can be traced back to the psychological construct of attitudes towards the environment. Although studies on trait and induced empathy are scarce, it appears that feelings of empathy and compassion for suffering people also generalise to environmental destruction, predicting beneficial environmental and climate actions. Empathy and immersion in nature are effective strategies for overcoming plant blindness and consolidating an intimate contact with the environment and together with environmental education and competence, from an early age, are prerequisites for private and public pro-environmental behaviour. The latter are also subject to the moderating influence of altruistic and biospheric values, subjective norms and personality traits. However, a discrepancy between the intention to respect the environment and actual behaviour is in fact evident. Climate change mitigation is hindered by psychological variables, such as temporal and self distance and the improper use of heuristics, which leads to errors of judgement and, finally, a tendency to inaction. A wide range of measurement instruments is available in the scientific literature, mostly self-report and explicit, of which only one assesses the construct of trait empathy. The lack of social desirability scales and italian validation, with the exception of the Pro-Environmental Behaviour Scale, makes progress in this field necessary. In the scenario of the current environmental and climate emergency, psychologists, with other professionals and social and political institutions, according to a multidisciplinary and synergic approach, must implement interventions to promote a change in individuals, culminating in the adoption of an eco-sustainable lifestyle