Psychological Contributions to Achieving an Ecologically Sustainable Future for Humanity

Journal of Social Issues, Fall, 2000 by Stuart Oskamp

Dislike of Sacrifice and Poverty

It is apparently a universal human tendency to avoid losses and poverty and to dislike making sacrifices. Therefore it is apt to be counterproductive to describe sustainable living in terms of making sacrifices (cf. Kaplan, this issue).

An often-cited example of this tendency to avoid personal sacrifices is the so-called tragedy of the commons (Hardin, 1968). This term refers to people's typical pattern of using community-owned resources (like the environment) profligately, because they pursue their own short-term individual benefit and ignore the long-term negative consequences to their whole society. This outcome is even more likely when the long-term consequences can't easily be seen, such as the risk of cancer from chemical pollutants or of climate change from cutting down rainforests. However, offsetting this selfish human tendency, there is widespread research evidence showing that the condition of common natural resources (e.g., pastureland or crab fisheries) has prospered for long periods when managed by small community groups that developed and enforced a system of mutual norms and rules (e.g., Gardner & Stern, 1996, p. 30).

People have adaptation levels to their customary environmental conditions, and they generally display reactance against changes that they perceive as detrimental to them. Thus, the idea of sacrificing personal advantages or comforts in order to advance the general welfare is apt to be unpopular. The concept of "sacrifice" is a perceptual one, however, and people often make great sacrifices in order to attain goals that they believe are vital: For instance, think of the privations that people willingly undergo in human warfare, religious movements, or voluntary immigration to a new country. I believe we need to harness this overarching motivation in our efforts to preserve the environment (see next section).

Possible Motivational Approaches

So what positive motivations can we appeal to? Many possibilities are discussed in the following articles in this issue. To begin the dialogue, here are six motivational approaches that cover a wide gamut and may be differentially effective with various types of people.

1. Voluntary simplicity as an overall, committed lifestyle has been advocated by Elgin (1993). This means "living lightly on the Earth": a way of life that is outwardly simple and uses the minimum necessary amount of natural resources and technology. In global perspective, it requires all nations to share the Earth's resources efficiently, peacefully, and equitably (Elgin, 1993, p. 42). According to its proponents, this way of life is also inwardly rich: alive, immediate, and poignant in its appreciation of simple experiences and pleasures rather than unneeded material luxuries (pp. 145-146). "It is to live with balance--taking no more than we require and, at the same time, giving fully of ourselves" (p. 157). Currently, it seems that only a few people are willing to make this broad a commitment in all areas of their lives, but the environmental problems facing the world demand that everyone move in that direction. Among the major changes that are necessary for a sustainable world are