Egoists like climate adaptation but not climate mitigation

Abstract

Social, biospheric, and temporal dilemma preferences are known to affect people’s decision making regarding engagement in proenvironmental behavior and, more specifically, also their engagement with climate change. In this study, we focus on the role of three social dilemma preferences (biospheric, egoistic and altruistic values) and two temporal preferences (consideration of future and immediate consequences) as factors of adaptation support and mitigation intention. We found, across four independent preregistered studies (total N = 3,710) conducted in four different countries, that some dilemma preferences affect climate mitigation intention and adaptation support similarly, whereas others have a differential effect on the types of actions. Those with an eye on the immediate consequences of their actions and who are concerned about direct personal benefits are likely to support climate adaptation but not climate mitigation. Generally, though, people who consider future events and their implications in their decision making and those who consider benefits for the biosphere and other people are likely to engage both in climate mitigation and climate adaptation.