Can Intergenerational Perspective-Taking Transform Environmental Attitudes, Policy Preferences, and Behavior?

The looming climate emergency poses an unprecedented challenge for contemporary societies. However, implementing ambitious climate policies in democracies requires strong public support. Public apathy and climate skepticism are hamstringing policy-makers’ efforts to address climate change. Given the durability of political attitudes and known difficulty of changing citizens’ minds, how can we increase concern for the environment, stimulate support for policies designed to address climate change, and promote pro-climate political behavior? Existing research points to the persuasive power of narratives (Broockman & Kalla, 2016) and immersive, online games that induce perspective-taking (Simonovits et al, 2017). Building on this research, we use an experimental research design to test whether an online, choose-your-own-adventure style game can induce “intergenerational perspective-taking”—induce subjects to take the perspective of a citizen living in the future—to change environmental attitudes (about the reality and threat of climate change), policy preferences (related to taxation and regulation), and promote pro-climate political behavior (signing a petition). Actively imagining the future could be a powerful tool for enhancing people’s understanding of the implications of climate change for future generations. We designed, preregistered and fielded two nationally representative experiments (in the United States and United Kingdom, n=2,500). After completing a pre-treatment questionnaire, subjects were randomly assigned to play one of two interactive, choose-your-own adventure style online games. Subjects assigned to the treatment played a first-person, choose-your-own-adventure game that involves living a few days in the life of their future self, navigating the consequences of climate disasters—flooding, wildfires, drought, and food shortages—in the year 2121. Subjects assigned to the placebo played a first-person, choose-your-own-adventure game that was unrelated to the future or to the environment. After playing the treatment or placebo games, subjects were asked a series of questions about their attitudes toward climate change and policy preferences. Subjects were also asked to sign a petition about fighting climate change (our measure of pro-climate political behavior). We conducted follow-up surveys to investigate the durability of these effects. Our results clarify whether intergenerational perspective-taking has the power to durably enhance individuals’ understanding of the climate emergency and to transform environmental preferences and behavior.