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Author ORCID Identifier
N/A
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Psychology
Year Degree Awarded
2018
Month Degree Awarded
September
First Advisor
Brian Lickel
Second Advisor
Ezra Markowitz
Third Advisor
Jeffrey Starns
Fourth Advisor
Brian Schaffner
Subject Categories
Social Psychology
Abstract
In the case of responding to climate change and related environmental problems, opinions about the best course of action have become starkly polarized along ideological lines. The identity-protective cognition thesis posits that when individuals experience a sense of challenge to these identities, they are motivated to engage in cognitive shortcuts and other reasoning processes to protect these identities against threat. In this research, I discuss three investigations into identity-protective cognition in the context of responding to environmental problems, applying the broader identity-protective cognition framework to a diverse set of theoretical and practical questions. Chapter 2 highlights research exploring the effect of motivated reasoning on responses to natural disasters linked with climate change. Chapter 3 looks at how brand and environmental identities influence responses to corporate environmental scandals that are personally relevant and require individual-level action. Chapter 4 extends this research paradigm by exploring public responses to visual imagery used to depict climate change across three countries, while also examining how identity-protective processes shape these responses. In addition to the theoretical and practical contributions for environmental engagement, explicit emphasis is placed on the use of full Bayesian inference for quantitative environmental decision making research. Implications for theory, methodology, and practice are considered.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/12368200
Recommended Citation
Chapman, Daniel A., "THREE INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE DYNAMICS AND IMPLICATIONS OF IDENTITY-PROTECTIVE COGNITION FOR PUBLIC RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1423.
https://doi.org/10.7275/12368200
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1423