Building sustainable futures through soft institutional interventions in the climate change context: An intergenerational experiment

Abstract

Nowadays we are all aware of the deep and long-lasting negative impacts of climate change. However, our existence is inherently dominated by our present circumstances, which affect our ability to preserve environmental resources – essential to leave unaltered the opportunities of future generations. Therefore, there is a tension, and decisions considered optimal for us today may not be consistent with sustainability between generations. We investigate this context of intergenerational tension across three experimental manipulations that aim to represent just as many different narratives of the future. The data collected from 180 participants show that it is hard to achieve collective sustainable outcomes by means of mere individual actions with no support of institutional actors. Consistently with previous findings, our study contributes to the literature by offering interesting policy implications on how institutionalized agencies appointed to provide advisory intergenerational guidance can act as catalysts among economic agents (e.g., individuals, but also firms and organizations), helping to overcome short-termism and generate more sustainable futures. However, in contrast with previous experimental studies, we find support that institutional enforcement is not an indispensable feature for these agencies to achieve intergenerational sustainability. Instead, institutionalized agencies can effectively promote sustainable futures based on a soft intergenerational advice.