Chae Rebecca L, Siddiqui Rafay, Xu Yan
Marketing Department, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053.
Marketing Department, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Feb 4;122(5):e2409851122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2409851122. Epub 2025 Jan 27.
The urgent calls for action on climate change underscore the importance of increasing sustainable behavior among individuals who have traditionally veered away from it, such as those on the political right. Utilizing data from four geopolitical regions across 24 countries, we explore whether vulnerability to natural disasters, brought on by either experiencing or anticipating a natural disaster, is a crucial factor. We find that as vulnerability to natural disasters increases, sustainable consumption intentions significantly increase among rightists in Western Europe, Israel, and the United States. Environmental motives, rather than economic or trend motives, are found to drive this effect. This suggests that, for rightists, the expectation of being directly impacted by climate change can override their established attitudes and foster more sustainable behavior with the goal of helping the environment. In contrast, the same increase in sustainable consumption intentions is weaker among leftists, who already embrace sustainable behavior. Interestingly, in Central and Eastern Europe, this interplay between political ideology and vulnerability to natural disasters is absent, highlighting the unique postcommunist context of this region. These findings underscore the necessity of tailored strategies for promoting sustainable behavior across regional contexts and provide vital insight into how sustainable consumption may increase among groups that have traditionally resisted it. In a quasiexperiment, we test the potential of an intervention using messages that highlight recent natural disasters in one's locality and demonstrate its effectiveness in pushing rightists toward sustainable consumption.
对气候变化采取行动的紧急呼吁凸显了在那些传统上远离可持续行为的人群（如政治右派人士）中增加可持续行为的重要性。利用来自24个国家四个地缘政治区域的数据，我们探讨经历或预期自然灾害所带来的对自然灾害的脆弱性是否是一个关键因素。我们发现，随着对自然灾害的脆弱性增加，西欧、以色列和美国的右派人士的可持续消费意愿显著增加。研究发现，推动这一效应的是环境动机，而非经济或潮流动机。这表明，对于右派人士来说，对气候变化直接影响的预期可以超越他们既有的态度，并促使他们采取更可持续的行为以帮助保护环境。相比之下，在已经接受可持续行为的左派人士中，同样的可持续消费意愿增长则较弱。有趣的是，在中欧和东欧，政治意识形态与对自然灾害的脆弱性之间不存在这种相互作用，凸显了该地区独特的后共产主义背景。这些发现强调了在不同区域背景下推广可持续行为的量身定制策略的必要性，并为传统上抵制可持续消费的群体中可持续消费如何增加提供了重要见解。在一项准实验中，我们测试了使用突出当地近期自然灾害的信息进行干预的潜力，并证明了其在推动右派人士走向可持续消费方面的有效性。
