Abstract:

More and more people start to be worried about looming climate change and start to modify their behaviour to reduce their carbon footprint. This paper explores which cognitive factors (cognitive reflection, scientific reasoning, unfounded beliefs) contribute to the decision to behave in a more eco-friendly way. A total of 316 people (143 men; 16–72 years; Mage=29.22; SDage=12.26) participated in the study. Participants filled in questionnaires measuring their scientific reasoning (Scientific Reasoning Scale, Drummond & Fischhoff, 2017; M=4.87; SD=1.39; α=.309; ω=.334), cognitive reflection (6-item version of Cognitive Reflection Test, Frederick, 2005; M=2.81; SD=1.66; α=.616; ω=.634), unfounded beliefs (Epistemologically Unfounded Beliefs Scale, Halama, 2018; M=2.65; SD=0.80; α=.841; ω=.841) and eco-friendly behaviour (Eco-Friendly Behaviour Scale; M=3.43; SD=0.96; α=804; ω=.807). First, principal component analyses revealed three factors of eco-friendly behaviour: basic (like recycling and composting), advanced (e.g. reusing, using reusable packaging, or not using motor vehicles), and political commitment in eco-friendly behaviour (e.g. signing the environmental petition, electing an environmental candidate, donating money/time to the environmental group). Second, basic eco-friendly behaviour correlated positively with scientific reasoning (r=.173; p=.002) and negatively with unfounded beliefs (r=-.149; p=.008); political commitment in eco-friendly behaviour correlated positively with scientific reasoning (r=.163; p=.004) and with cognitive reflection (r=.132; p=.019); there were no correlations between advanced eco-friendly behaviour and scientific reasoning, cognitive reflection, or unfounded beliefs predicted eco-friendly behaviour. Finally, only scientific reasoning showed as a significant but weak predictor for basic eco-friendly behaviour (F(1,314)=9.696, p=.002) and political commitment in eco-friendly behaviour (F(1,314)=8.521, p=.004), accounting for up to 3% of the variation. These results suggest that scientific reasoning could play some role in eco-friendly behaviour that contributes to slowing down climate change, and should be developed within education.

Keywords:

Scientific reasoning, cognitive reflection, unfounded beliefs, climate change.