ezra markowitz | University of Massachusetts Amherst (original) (raw)

Papers by ezra markowitz

There is considerable scientific interest in the psychological correlates of pro-environmental be... more There is considerable scientific interest in the psychological correlates of pro-environmental behaviors. Much research has focused on demographic and social-psychological characteristics of individuals who consistently perform such actions. Here, we report the results of 2 studies in which we explored relations between broad personality traits and pro-environmental actions. Using a wide variety of behavior and personality measures, we consistently found moderate positive relations between Openness to Experience and pro-environmental activities in both a community sample (Study 1: N = 778) and an undergraduate student sample (Study 2: N = 115). In Study 2, we showed that the effect of Openness on pro-environmental behaviors was fully mediated by individuals' environmental attitudes and connection to nature. Our findings suggest that high levels of aesthetic appreciation, creativity, and inquisitiveness, but not personality traits associated with altruism, may have motivated the performance of pro-environmental actions among our respondents. Implications for intervention development are discussed.

A surge of psychological research on or related to global climate change has occurred since 2006.... more A surge of psychological research on or related to global climate change has occurred since 2006. This chapter reviews research on beliefs about climate change and educational efforts to address these beliefs, impacts of climate change and adaptation to and in preparation for these impacts, and human contributions to climate change and ways to encourage mitigation behaviors. More specifically the chapter describes: 1) characteristics of and changes over time in beliefs about global climate change, who holds these beliefs, and psychological sources of these beliefs; 2) psychological, interpersonal, and intergroup impacts of global climate change, the role of appraisals in the impacts, and vulnerability, resilience and social justice issues related to adapting to the impacts are considered; and 3) behaviors that contribute to and mitigate climate change, psychological processes that predict these behaviors, and methods to encourage mitigation behaviors based upon research on social influence processes and systems theory.

Moral philosophers argue that climate change poses an 'ethical problem' for humanity and thus tha... more Moral philosophers argue that climate change poses an 'ethical problem' for humanity and thus that humans have moral obligations to respond. Little empirical research has explored whether non-philosophers agree with these conclusions. This is unfortunate, because non-experts' moral intuitions (or lack thereof) about climate change likely hold important implications for willingness to engage cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally with the issue. After reviewing the moral philosophical position on climate change, I present results of two studies conducted with a total of 922 U.S. undergraduate students that explored beliefs about the 'ethics of climate change.' Forty-five percent of the students sampled stated unequivocally that climate change represents a moral or ethical issue; a full quarter of students said it was not an ethical issue and roughly 30% were unsure. Participants' beliefs regarding the causes of climate change were predictive of intentions to perform pro-environmental actions, and this relationship was fully mediated by ascriptions of personal moral obligation to respond. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

We explored how social perceivers detect and explain others' environmentally relevant behaviors (... more We explored how social perceivers detect and explain others' environmentally relevant behaviors (ERBs). Participants watched short videos in which an actor performed an ERB (e.g., composting) or a control behavior (e.g., setting the table); they were then asked to explain why the actor had performed this behavior. Participants ''detected'' an (a priori classified) ERB if their explanation made explicit reference to the environmental relevance of the action. In a comparison of self-identified environmentalists and nonenvironmentalists, environmentalists detected significantly more ERBs (d = 1.3). Relying on a recently developed theory of behavior explanations, we also classified explanations into two modes: Explainers can offer reasons and thereby ''mentalize''-citing the subjective mental states (e.g., beliefs, desires) in light of which the agent chose to act; explainers can also offer causal history factors, referring to the broader background of that choice (e.g., personality, culture). When perceivers identified a behavior as environmentally relevant, they used significantly more causal history explanations, overlooking the agent's subjective grounds for acting. This effect was stronger for self-identified environmentalists. One interpretation of these results is that actions framed as environmental are seen less as reflecting conscious choices and more as belonging to a broad category of behavior. Focusing on causal background rather than on the agent's reasons may present obstacles for social perceivers' adoption of other people's environmental behavior.

In our target article (Markowitz & Bowerman 2011), we reported findings from a series of surveys ... more In our target article (Markowitz & Bowerman 2011), we reported findings from a series of surveys suggesting that a large majority of Americans possess positive attitudes towards reducing consumption, with implications for individual and policy actions. Commentators Katherine Arbuthnott, Keith Brown, and Susan Clayton draw attention to both strengths and weaknesses in our target manuscript and raise important points about the role of consumption-related attitudes and norms in shaping behavior and policy. As readers following this prior discussion are aware, our initial research centered around a consistent finding regarding Oregonians' attitudes towards consumption: across a series of statewide surveys and in-depth interviews, we found that the vast majority of Oregonians agreed that " Our country would be better off if we all consumed less. " At the same time, we found decidedly mixed support regarding the translation of such " de-consumption " beliefs into actual behavior and policy preferences. All three of the commentators appear to share our own guarded optimism regarding the potential implications of these findings for confronting issues related to over-consumption (e.g., climate change). We are largely in agreement with the various points and critiques each raises and herein aim to offer an actionable response.

The prevalence of marriage varies across the lifespan, as does its importance to reproduction and... more The prevalence of marriage varies across the lifespan, as does its importance to reproduction and the nurturance of children. We examined genetic and environmental influences on self-reported marriage at each decade from 20 through 70 years of age, using data collected for the Duke Dementia Study, a followed-up subset of the World War II Veteran Twin Registry. Genetic influences best fit a common factor model, supplemented by another, age-specific, genetic factor at age 30. Broad heritability increased from age 20 through 40, and then decreased to zero by ages 60 and 70. A longitudinal Cholesky model best described environmental influences on marriage across the lifespan. Shared environmental factors showed their greatest influence at age 20, no influence at 30 or 40 years, and then, reappeared with influence at 60 and 70. Variance due to error and unique environmental influences increased steadily to age 50 years and then declined slightly.

It is difficult to detect global warming directly because most people experience changes only in ... more It is difficult to detect global warming directly because most people experience changes only in local weather patterns, which are highly variable and may not reflect long-term global climate trends. However, local climate-change experience may play an important role in adaptation and mitigation behaviour and policy support 1–3. Previous research indicates that people can perceive and adapt to aspects of climate variability and change based on personal observations 4–6. Experience with local weather may also influence global warming beliefs 7,8. Here we examine the extent to which respondents in 89 countries detect recent changes in average local temperatures. We demonstrate that public perceptions correspond with patterns of observed temperature change from climate records: individuals who live in places with rising average temperatures are more likely than others to perceive local warming. As global climate change intensifies, changes in local temperatures and weather patterns may be increasingly detected by the global public. These findings also suggest that public opinion of climate change may shift, at least in part, in response to the personal experience of climate change. As average global temperatures rise, humans around the world will experience local weather events that fall outside the range of recent experience 9. For example, abnormally hot weather will generally become more likely and abnormally cold weather will generally become less likely as average global temperatures rise 9. Although average temperatures have risen significantly across much of the world in recent decades 10 , it may be difficult for people to directly perceive these long-term changes owing to the variability of the climate system 11. As a result, climate change has been considered a phenomenon that is particularly challenging for humans to perceive directly, resulting in climate-change risk communication messages that emphasize descriptive evidence of global warming rather than direct experience 2. However, local climates in many places are now changing in ways that may be directly perceptible through everyday experiences of weather 12 , and recent polling suggests that many individuals are indeed perceiving these changes 13. This finding is important because for climate-related risks considered abstract by the public, descriptive information alone may not motivate concern or behaviour change to the same extent as recent personal experience 1. Thus, there is a need to understand how people interpret climate change based on their personal experience. This study examines perceptions of recent local temperature change among residents of 89 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe in 2007–2008 (n = 91,073), a sample that is representative of 80% of the global population. We investigate the extent to which perceptions of local climate change correspond with high-resolution historical climate data. We predict that perceptions

Compassion shown towards victims often decreases as the number of individuals in need of aid incr... more Compassion shown towards victims often decreases as the number of individuals in need of aid increases, identifi-ability of the victims decreases, and the proportion of victims helped shrinks. Such " compassion fade " may hamper individual-level and collective responses to pressing large-scale crises. To date, research on compassion fade has fo-cused on humanitarian challenges; thus, it remains unknown whether and to what extent compassion fade emerges when victims are non-human others. Here we show that compassion fade occurs in the environmental domain, but only among non-environmentalists. These findings suggest that compassion fade may challenge our collective ability and willingness to confront the major environmental problems we face, including climate change. The observed moderation effect of environmental identity further indicates that compassion fade may present a significant psychological barrier to building broad public support for addressing these problems. Our results highlight the importance of bringing findings from the field of judgment and decision making to bear on pressing societal issues.

A long history of interdisciplinary research highlights the powerful role that human values play ... more A long history of interdisciplinary research highlights the powerful role that human values play in shaping individuals' engagement with environmental issues. That certain values are supportive of proenvironmental orientation and behavior is now well established. But as the challenge of communicating the risks of climate change has grown increasingly urgent, there has been a rise in interest around how values shape public engagement with this issue. In this paper, we review the growing body of work that explores the role of human values (and the closely related concept of cultural worldviews) in public engagement with climate change. Following a brief conceptual overview of values and their relationship to environmental engagement in general, we then provide a review of the literature linking value-orientations and engagement with climate change. We also review both academic and 'gray' literature from civil society organizations that has focused on how public messages about climate change should be framed, and discuss the significance of research on human values for climate change communication strategies.

As social scientists have investigated the political and social factors influencing public opinio... more As social scientists have investigated the political and social factors influencing public opinion in science-related policy debates, there has been growing interest in the implications of this research for public communication and outreach. Given the level of political polarization in the United States, much of the focus has been on partisan differences in public opinion, the strategies employed by political leaders and advocates that promote those differences, and the counter-strategies for overcoming them. Yet this focus on partisan differences tends to overlook the processes by which core beliefs about science and society impact public opinion and how these schema are often activated by specific frames of reference embedded in media coverage and popular discourse. In this study, analyzing cross-sectional, nationally representative survey data collected between 2002 and 2010, we investigate the relative influence of political partisanship and science-related schema on Americans' support for embryonic stem cell research. In comparison to the influence of partisan identity, our findings suggest that generalized beliefs about science and society were more chronically accessible, less volatile in relation to media attention and focusing events, and an overall stronger influence on public opinion. Classifying respondents into four unique audience groups based on their beliefs about science and society, we additionally find that individuals within each of these groups split relatively evenly by partisanship but differ on other important dimensions. The implications for public engagement and future research on controversies related to biomedical science are discussed.

Climate change is a threat to human societies and natural ecosystems, yet public opinion research... more Climate change is a threat to human societies and natural ecosystems, yet public opinion research finds that public awareness and concern vary greatly. Here, using an unprecedented survey of 119 countries, we determine the relative influence of socio-demographic characteristics, geography, perceived well-being, and beliefs on public climate change awareness and risk perceptions at national scales. Worldwide, educational attainment is the single strongest predictor of climate change awareness. Understanding the anthropogenic cause of climate change is the strongest predictor of climate change risk perceptions, particularly in Latin America and Europe, whereas perception of local temperature change is the strongest predictor in many African and Asian countries. However, other key factors associated with public awareness and risk perceptions highlight the need to develop tailored climate communication strategies for individual nations. The results suggest that improving basic education, climate literacy, and public understanding of the local dimensions of climate change are vital to public engagement and support for climate action.