Globally, investment in climate change mitigation has lagged far behind the optimal level as estimated by a large body of science. This lag may be caused, in part, by the psychological distance between decision-makers today and those who will likely experience the worst impacts of climate change in the future. This psychological distance reduces the salience of those impacts in today’s decisions. In a randomized control experiment using a letter-to-the-future treatment and a climate change essay treatment, I find that compared to a control group, both writing tasks that focus attention on the future risks of climate change increase the willingness to donate to climate change mitigation efforts. I also find evidence that for parents and grandparents, writing a letter to one’s child or grandchild increases the salience of existing concerns about how climate change may impact one’s children. These findings contribute to the understanding of how to bridge the psychological distance between choices and consequences for climate change mitigation and have implications for a wide range of decisions from personal health choices to retirement savings.

在全球范围内，减缓气候变化的投资远远落后于大量科学机构估计的最佳水平。造成这种滞后的部分原因可能是今天的决策者与将来可能会遭受气候变化最严重影响的决策者之间的心理距离。这种心理距离降低了当今决策中这些影响的显着性。在使用未来信使和气候变化随笔治疗的随机对照实验中，我发现与对照组相比，这两个写作任务都将注意力集中在未来气候变化的风险上，从而增加了捐赠的意愿。缓解气候变化的努力。我还发现有证据表明，对于父母和祖父母，给孩子或孙子写信增加了人们对气候变化如何影响孩子的担忧。这些发现有助于人们理解如何弥合选择与减轻气候变化后果之间的心理距离，并对从个人健康选择到退休储蓄的广泛决策产生影响。