Behavioral climate change : does thinking about future consequences of climate change affect risk preferences and cooperation?

Abstract

Human-made climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. This paper examines how thinking about future consequences of climate change influences decision-making. Using priming experiments, we address ambiguity preferences, risk preferences, and willingness to cooperate among farmers, students, and representatives of the general population of Germany. The results show that farmers (who were asked specifically about the consequences for their profession) – but not students or representatives of the general population – increase their investments in uncertain assets. There are also common patterns across the subject pools, most notably willingness to cooperate remains largely unchanged.