Goodbye Guilt

Goodbye guilt; hello cooperation, integration and meaningful action. This abstract emphasizes that people are far more inclined to be proactive about climate change if it is framed as a collective issue, and not a personal responsibility. Instead of focusing attention on the individual contribution to climate change, and all the guilt and grief that can accompany that realization, it makes more sense, and has a bigger impact, to represent it as a collective issue. This article goes into depth about exactly why that is, taking into consideration the results of several focus groups and years of research. One part states: “Mulling over your personal contribution is likely to result in cognitive dissonance — the discomfort felt when people realize their behavior conflicts with their values.”  Organized groups with similar values don’t only provide strength and support to the causes they fight for, but they provide critical social capital for acting.  

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