Doctoral Dissertation Research: Thinking ahead to do better now: Legacy-focused cognition and its link to environmental sustainability

博士论文研究：提前思考现在做得更好：以遗产为中心的认知及其与环境可持续性的联系

• 批准号: 2343645
• 负责人: Janet Swim
• 金额: $ 3.89万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2343645&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Thinking; ahead

The omnipresent issue of climate variability has brought the importance of intergenerational stewardship to light, and environmental sustainability has become one of the most public and pressing intergenerational challenges of the 21st century. Still, it remains difficult for people to truly grasp how actions in the present can create negative consequences for those in the distant future. Thus, motivating people to be less selfish in the present and more generous toward the future is a fundamental step in safeguarding the well-being of future generations. Exploring motivations for this kind of intergenerational selflessness via the present project has multi-faceted scientific significance, from contributing to the scientific understanding of legacy-focused thinking and its link to environmental sustainability to demonstrating the advantages of using cutting edge computational methods in social science research. Furthermore, this project informs how a deeply rooted psychological motivation—the motivation to establish a posthumous legacy—can be leveraged to promote environmental health and ensure a healthy and sustainable world that generations can enjoy for many years to come. Although prior studies have demonstrated that reflecting on one’s posthumous legacy promotes concerns and behaviors related to environmental sustainability, the details of these reflections and effects remain unclear and underexplored. Across two online survey studies, the research team uses a mix of cutting-edge computational and traditional statistical techniques to illuminate what people are thinking when they report their desired posthumous legacy (Research Question 1), how these themes may differ between demographic groups (Research Question 2), and which themes are positively associated with environmental sustainability concerns and behaviors (Research Question 3). Showing how advancements in computational techniques can aid social scientific research via efficiency and scalability may inspire future researchers to adopt similar approaches. Additionally, insights gained through the project aid future researchers and public health organizations when developing/testing messages that can effectively motivate sustainability concerns and behaviors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

气候变化的无所不在问题使代际管理的重要性揭示了，环境可持续性已成为21世纪最公开和紧迫的代际挑战之一。尽管如此，人们仍然很难真正抓住当前的行动如何为遥远的未来者造成负面后果。这是激励人们在当前的自私，更慷慨的未来是维护子孙后代的福祉的基本一步。通过本项目探索这种代际自私的动机具有多方面的科学意义，从对以传统为中心的思维的科学理解及其与环境可持续性的联系，以证明在社会科学研究中使用尖端计算方法的优势。此外，该项目介绍了一个根深蒂固的心理动机（建立死后遗产的动机）如何利用以促进环境健康并确保世代在未来很多年都可以享受的健康和可持续世界。尽管先前的研究表明，反思对一个人的死后遗产促进了与环境可持续性有关的关注和行为，但这些反思和效果的细节仍然不清楚和毫无疑问。在两项在线调查研究中，研究团队使用尖端计算和传统统计技术的混合，以阐明人们在报告所需的死后遗产时（研究问题1），这些主题在人口统计学群体之间如何有所不同（研究问题2），哪些主题与环境可持续性的问题和行为问题有正面的关系（研究问题3）。展示计算技术的进步如何通过效率和可扩展性来帮助社会科学研究，这可能会激发未来的研究人员采用类似的方法。此外，通过项目援助未来的研究人员和公共卫生组织获得的见解在开发/测试可以有效激发可持续性问题和行为的信息时。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来获得支持的。