ABSTRACT
Ironically, one of the primary problems with environmentally destructive behaviors is the fact that their consequences are fairly minimal when we consider the impact of a single individual at a given point in time. Indeed, the global temperature will not rise appreciably if I choose to take my car to work tomorrow. Our natural resources will not suddenly disappear if I choose to throw a recyclable can in the trash. And press on the earth’s capacity to feed its inhabitants will not change after the birth of a new baby. And yet, over the long run, overreliance on cars, failure to recycle, overpopulation, and a variety of related behaviors have contributed to the serious environmental challenges we now face. In sum, many of our most pressing environmental problems can be viewed as the result of an insidious arrangement of conflicting short-term individual
and long-term collective consequences that has gradually led us down a path that we might soon regret. Restated, many of our most challenging environmental problems can be framed as social dilemmas (cf. Joireman, Lasane, Bennett, Richards, & Solaimani, 2001; Karp, 1996; Steg, 2003), broadly defined as situations in which short-term individual and long-term collective interests are at odds (Komorita & Parks, 1994; Messick & Brewer, 1983).
