Human emotions play a fundamental role in shaping decision-making processes, particularly in contexts where individual actions contribute to collective outcomes. Emotional responses influence how people process information, form judgments, and make choices, which is especially relevant in addressing social dilemmas like climate change. Such dilemmas arise because environmental behavior often reflects the characteristics of a public good, where societal benefits outweigh individual incentives, leading to behavioral barriers. Understanding how emotions drive decision-making is crucial for fostering meaningful action in this domain.
The focus of this project is on analyzing the role of climate-related emotions—hope, anxiety, and guilt—in economic decision-making within the context of climate change mitigation. These emotions are frequently utilized in climate communication strategies by NGOs to motivate public engagement. To investigate this, we conducted a laboratory experiment involving over 300 student participants.
To test our hypotheses, we employ short video treatments to reliably elicit the targeted emotional states. Following the emotion induction, participants are presented with opportunities to make financial contributions to climate protection projects aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. These projects are framed to benefit either spatially close (local) or spatially distant (global) communities. By systematically manipulating emotional states and donation contexts, this study provides a novel perspective to examining the influence of emotions on cooperative behavior related to public goods.