Scientific study finds people who act green experience a 'warm glow' which then causes them to perceive global temperature to be higher-Nature peer reviewed study, 11/24/14

11/24/14, "Acting green elicits a literal warm glow," Nature Climate Change, Nature.com

• Danny Taufik, Jan Willem Bolderdijk, Linda Steg

"Environmental policies are often based on the assumption that people only act environmentally friendly if some extrinsic reward is implicated, usually money^{1, 2}. We argue that people might also be motivated by intrinsic rewards: doing the right thing (such as acting environmentally friendly) elicits psychological rewards in the form of positive feelings, a phenomenon known as warm glow^{3, 4}. Given the fact that people’s psychological state may affect their thermal state^{5, 6}, we expected that this warm glow could express itself quite literally: people who act environmentally friendly may perceive the temperature to be higher. In two studies, we found that people who learned they acted environmentally friendly perceived a higher temperature than people who learned they acted environmentally unfriendly. The underlying psychological mechanism pertains to the self-concept: learning you acted environmentally friendly signals to yourself that you are a good person. Together, our studies show that acting environmentally friendly can be psychologically rewarding, suggesting that appealing to intrinsic rewards can be an alternative way to encourage pro-environmental actions." via Hockey Schtick



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