The evolutionary psychology of climate change behaviors: Insights and applications

This review examines climate-related activities through an evolutionary psychology lens, identifying five core ancestral psychological motivations - relating to self-interest, status, sensing, temporal discounting, and social imitation - that shape people's environmental decisions in fundamental ways. The authors argue that evolved psychological mechanisms, originally adapted to very different ancestral environments, can help explain why people often behave in ways that are misaligned with long-term environmental interests, such as discounting future or distant environmental costs, or being more motivated by reputational and status concerns than by environmental outcomes themselves. Drawing on this evolutionary framework, the paper reviews how these same mechanisms - including reputational signalling and social learning - can potentially be harnessed to promote pro-environmental behaviour, offering practical applications alongside the underlying theoretical account.