Action Tendencies and Characteristics of Environmental Risks

Proposes a model of risk evaluation that includes consequentialist and deontological judgments as well as specific emotions as mediators of action tendencies. 400 Ss (aged 16-77 yrs) took part in an experiment, which presented scenario information about environmental risks. The scenarios differed with respect to (1) causation (human vs natural cause; single vs aggregate causation), (2) consequence (harm to self vs harm to other people vs harm to nature), and (3) geographical distance (proximate vs distant). Ss indicated how much they preferred each of 31 prospective behaviors. Factor analyses yielded 5 types of action tendencies: help, aggression, escape, political action, and self-focus. The causal structure of the risks was systematically related to action tendencies, e.g., environmental risks that are caused by humans, and in particular those caused by a single human agent, elicit aggressive action tendencies. The findings confirm that the perceived causal structure of a specific risk determines whether the focus is upon consequentialist or deontological judgments, which, in turn, elicit specific types of action tendency, mediated by emotions.