Why do people respond to environmental issues differently? In this research, we approach this question by referring to the role of social axioms, a set of generalized beliefs that embody people's assumptions and expectations about how the social world functions. There are five social axioms specifically: social cynicism, reward for application, social complexity, fate control, and religiosity. We contend that when facing environmental issues, people will resort to their social axioms as these axioms help them understand those issues and evaluate their capability to tackle them through personal and/or collective efforts. As expected, in three studies, we found that the five axioms were associated with environmental attitude and efficacy beliefs: reward for application and social complexity were associated with a more pro-environmental orientation, whereas social cynicism, fate control, and religiosity were related to a less pro-environmental orientation. In Study 3, we additionally demonstrated the unique contribution of social axioms in explaining environmentalism with values and big five personality traits controlled for. These findings support the use of the concept of social axioms as a novel framework for understanding individual differences in environmentalism. This framework offers insights into how people process environment-related information and events and determine their mitigation and adaptation strategies.

人们为什么对环境问题有不同的反应？在本研究中，我们通过参考社会公理的作用来解决这个问题，社会公理是体现人们对社会世界运作方式的假设和期望的一系列广义信念。具体而言，有五种社会公理：社会玩世不恭，对应用的奖励，社会复杂性，命运控制和宗教信仰。我们认为，面对环境问题时，人们将诉诸于社会公理，因为这些公理可帮助他们理解这些问题并评估他们通过个人和（或）集体努力解决这些问题的能力。正如预期的那样，在三项研究中，我们发现这五个公理与环境态度和功效信念有关：对应用程序的奖励和社会复杂性与更亲环境的取向有关，而社会玩世不恭，命运控制和宗教信仰与较不亲环境的取向有关。在研究3中，我们还证明了社会公理在解释环保主义中的独特贡献，其中包括价值观和受控制的五个主要人格特质。这些发现支持将社会公理的概念用作理解环境主义个人差异的新颖框架。该框架提供了有关人们如何处理与环境有关的信息和事件以及确定其缓解和适应策略的见解。我们还展示了社会公理在解释具有价值和受控的五个大人格特质的环保主义方面的独特贡献。这些发现支持将社会公理的概念用作理解环境主义个人差异的新颖框架。该框架提供了有关人们如何处理与环境有关的信息和事件以及确定其缓解和适应策略的见解。我们还展示了社会公理在解释具有价值和受控的五个大人格特质的环保主义方面的独特贡献。这些发现支持将社会公理的概念用作理解环境主义个人差异的新颖框架。该框架提供了有关人们如何处理与环境有关的信息和事件以及确定其缓解和适应策略的见解。