Sustainable Development and Emotions

Abstract

To establish national and worldwide sustainable development, changes in individual behavior patterns and decision-making processes are necessary. We argue that environment-specific cognitions and emotions are decisive for sustainable behavior and environment endangering decisions. Data show that the influential cognitions and emotions do not represent a self centered, but rather a moral perspective. Cognitions like environment-specific control beliefs, ecological responsibility attributions, environmental justice appraisals and environment-specific moral emotions, such as indignation about insufficient sustainable political decision-making, are the most powerful predictors for sustainable behavior. Other emotional categories, for example, emotional affinity towards nature, have additional effects. In sum, the neglected emotional perspective on sustainable behavior needs to be included on the level of model building, as well as on the practical level of intervention programs