Green as the gospel : the power of stewardship messages to improve climate change attitudes

Three studies (N = 1,389) investigate how attitudes toward the environment and climate change may be informed by stewardship beliefs (care for the Earth as a sacred religious duty) or dominion beliefs (God-given dominance over nature). Pro-environmental measures were positively associated with stewardship belief and negatively associated with dominion belief, moderated by religiosity (Study 1). When religious participants read passages from the Bible supporting stewardship, they expressed greater concern for climate change, compared with those who read dominion messages or a control passage (Study 2). Reading the Pro-environmental encyclical by Pope Francis increased participants’ belief in and moralization of climate change, but this was moderated by favorable attitudes toward the Pope. These findings suggest that environmental attitudes can be shaped by views of religious authorities and present an optimistic view that environmental stewardship can be used to improve concern for climate change among religious believers

Spiritual experiences evoke awe through the small self in both religious and non-religious individuals

Spiritual experiences are profound moments of personal transcendence, connection, and wonder. Five studies (total N = 1064) investigate how spiritual experiences induce feelings of awe, in both religious and non-religious people, through a sense of small self. Recalling spiritual experiences increased feelings of Awe (Studies 1-5), Small Self (Studies 2, 4, & 5), and Spiritual Humility (Studies 3 & 4), but did not impact Intellectual Humility (Studies 3 & 4). We thus note a paradox– spirituality promotes humility toward the divine, but not humility about one’s beliefs. Moreover, the effect of spiritual experiences on Awe was mediated by feelings of Small Self (Studies 2, 4 & 5) and Spirituality Humility (Studies 3 & 4). The effects of spiritual experiences on Awe and Small Self were found in both religious and non-religious individuals, but religious people recalled more explicit religious events and life and death events as sources of spirituality, whereas non-religious people were more likely to report experiences in nature, peak experiences, science, and yoga/ meditation as spiritual experiences. We conclude that religious and non-religious people may generate different types of spiritual experiences, but spirituality induces awe through a sense of small self shared by both religious and non-religious individuals, and this may help us to understand the meaning of spirituality without religion

Anthropocentric biases in teleological thinking : how nature seems designed for humans

People frequently see design in nature that reflects intuitive teleological thinking– that is, the order in nature that supports life suggests it was designed for that purpose. This research proposes that inferences are stronger when nature supports human life in particular. Five studies (total N = 1788) examine evidence for an anthro-teleological bias. People agreed more with design statements framed to aid humans (e.g., “trees produce oxygen so that humans can breathe”) than the same statements framed to aid other targets (“trees produce oxygen so that leopards can breathe”). The bias was greatest when advantages for humans were well-known and salient (e.g., the ozone layer) and decreased when advantages for other targets were made explicit. The bias was not eliminated by highlighting the benefits for other species, however, and emerged spontaneously for novel phenomena (Jupiter’s gravity protects Earth from asteroids). We conclude that anthropocentric biases enhance existing teleological biases to see stronger design in phenomena where it enables human survival

Effects of Subliminal Priming of Self and God on Self-Attribution of Authorship for Events

Three studies investigated how subliminally primed thoughts of an agent prior to action can affect ascriptions of authorship for that action. Participants competed against a computer program to remove words from a computer screen. Participants reported greater feelings of authorship when primed with first person singular pronouns, and lower feelings of authorship when primed with “computer.” We also investigated whether authorship feelings could be affected by priming subjects with a supernatural agent (i.e., God). Feelings of authorship decreased when participants were primed with God, but only among believers.Psycholog

Action Embellishment: An Intention Bias in the Perception of Success

Naïve theories of behavior hold that actions are caused by an agent’s intentions, and the subsequent success of an action is measured by the satisfaction of those intentions. But when an action is not as successful as intended, the expected causal link between intention and action may distort perception of the action itself. Four studies found evidence of an intention bias in perceptions of action. Actors perceived actions to be more successful when given a prior choice (e.g., choose between two words to type) and also when they felt greater motivation for the action (e.g., hitting pictures of disliked people). When the intent was to fail (e.g., singing poorly) choice led to worse estimates of performance. A final experiment suggested that intention bias works independent from self-enhancement motives. In observing another actor hit pictures of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, shots were distorted to match the actor’s intentions, even when it opposed personal wishes. Together these studies indicate that judgments of action may be automatically distorted, and that these inferences arise from the expected consistency between intention and action in agency.Psycholog

Effects of subliminal priming of self and God on self-attribution of authorship for events

Three studies investigated how subliminally primed thoughts of an agent prior to action can affect ascriptions of authorship for that action. Participants competed against a computer program to remove words from a computer screen. Participants reported greater feelings of authorship when primed with first person singular pronouns, and lower feelings of authorship when primed with “computer.” We also investigated whether authorship feelings could be affected by priming subjects with a supernatural agent (i.e., God). Feelings of authorship decreased when participants were primed with God, but only among believers

Masterplanning at the Port of Dover: The Use of Discrete-Event Simulation in Managing Road Traffic

The Port of Dover is Europe’s busiest ferry port, handling £119 billion or 17% of the UK’s annual trade in goods. The Port is constrained geographically to a small area and faces multiple challenges, both short- and long-term, with managing the flow of five million vehicles per year to/from mainland Europe. This article describes some of the work that the Port is doing to minimize the impact of port road traffic on the local community and environment using discrete-event simulation modeling. Modeling is particularly valuable in identifying where future bottlenecks are likely to form within the Port due to projected growth in freight traffic and comparing the effectiveness of different interventions to cope with growth. One of our key findings is that space which can be used flexibly is far more valuable than dedicated space. This is supported by the much greater reduction in traffic congestion that is expected to be achieved given a 10% increase in freight traffic by reallocating space at the front of the system to temporarily hold vehicles waiting to pass through border control and check-in compared to extending the amount of space for ferry embarkation at the rear of the system. The importance of flexible space has implications for port design that can be applied more broadly. Modeling is also useful in identifying critical thresholds for vehicle processing times that would cause the system to become overwhelmed. Increasing the check-in time by just three to five minutes, for example, would completely exceed the Port’s capacity and produce indefinite queueing. This finding has important implications for Brexit planning. From a wider context, the research presented here nicely illustrates how simulation can be used to instill more evidence-based thinking into port masterplanning and support “green port” and other corporate sustainability initiatives

Comparing the influence of intellectual humility, religiosity, and political conservatism on vaccine attitudes in the U.S., Canada, and UK

Three studies of USA, Canada, and UK respondents examined pro-vaccine attitudes as predicted by intellectual humility, belief in science, religiosity, and political attitudes. Intellectual humility (IH) refers to the capacity to understand limits of one’s own beliefs and showed strong relationship to pro-vaccine attitudes across samples. Pro-vaccine attitudes were correlated with Intellectual Humility and negatively correlated with political conservatism and religiosity. Regression models compared overlapping influences of belief predictors on vaccine attitudes. Across countries, IH was the most consistent predictor of pro-vaccine attitudes when controlling for other beliefs and thinking styles (political conservatism, belief in science, religiosity). In comparison, political conservatism was a significant predictor of vaccine attitudes in regression models on U.S. and Canadian respondents, and religiosity only held as a predictor in regression models in the U.S sample. We conclude with a discussion of intellectual humility as a predictor of vaccine attitudes and implications for research and persuasion

Towards a psychology of religion and the environment : the good, the bad, and the mechanisms

What is the relationship between religion and care for the natural world? Although this question has motivated research for decades, the evidence is inconsistent. Here, we highlight the psychological mechanisms by which specific features of religious systems may differentially impact environmental beliefs and commitments—positively and negatively—to help generate more targeted questions for future research. Religious traditions that emphasize human dominance over the natural world, promote just-world and end-world beliefs, and are tied to more fundamentalist/conservative attitudes can diminish levels of environmental concern in its adherents. Alternatively, religious and spiritual traditions that moralize the protection of the natural world, sanctify nature, and emphasize belief in human stewardship of the natural world can promote pro-environmental concern and commitments

Climate change helplessness and the (de)moralization of individual energy behavior

Although most people understand the threat of climate change, they do little to modify their own energy conservation behavior. One reason for this gap between belief and behavior may be that individual actions seem un-impactful and therefore are not morally relevant. This research investigates how climate change helplessness—belief that one’s actions cannot affect climate change—can undermine the moralization of climate change and personal energy conservation. In Study 1, climate change efficacy predicted both moralization of energy use and energy conservation intentions beyond individual belief in climate change. In Studies 2 and 3, participants read information about climate change that varied in efficacy message, that is, whether individual actions (e.g., using less water, turning down heat) make a difference in the environment. Participants who read that their behavior made a meaningful impact reported stronger moralization and intentions (Study 2), and reported less energy consumption one week later (Study 3). Moreover, effects on intentions and actions were mediated by changes in moralization. We discuss ways to improve climate change messages to foster environmental efficacy and moralization of personal energy use