Climate change is an anthropogenic existential threat that provokes extreme concern among climate scientists, but not, it seems, among all member of the public. Here, there is considerably more variability in level of concern and, it appears, in everyday sustainable behavior. But how does personality affect this variability in behavior? And how are underlying personality states like dispositional optimism linked to more sustainable everyday practices? Research in clinical psychology has suggested that dispositional optimism is a very positive personality characteristic associated with higher levels of hope and resilience, but applied research from other domains has reported that optimists can, on occasion, bury their heads in the sand and avoid attending to external threats, like climate change, in order to maintain mood state. So are optimists more immune to climate change messaging than non-optimists? And do they make fewer sustainable choices? A series of experimental studies, manipulating signifiers of carbon footprint (Study 1) and eco labels on products (Study 2) found that optimists made more sustainable choices than non-optimists and that both groups were influenced equally by climate change film clips in terms of sustainable choices (Study 1). Optimists also displayed a false consensus effect, overestimating the proportion of people who would behave more sustainably like themselves (Study 3). Given that global problems like climate change need concerted, cooperative effort, these optimistic beliefs about how others behave could be adaptive in the long-run. Designing climate change messages to appeal to optimists might be a critical consideration for the future.

中文翻译：

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人格与气候变化减缓：乐观主义者可持续选择的心理和符号学探索

气候变化是一种人为的生存威胁，引起了气候科学家的极度关注，但似乎并非所有公众都如此。在这里，关注程度和日常可持续行为的差异性要大得多。但是个性如何影响这种行为的可变性呢？性格乐观主义等潜在的人格状态如何与更可持续的日常实践联系起来？临床心理学研究表明，性格乐观主义是一种非常积极的人格特征，与更高水平的希望和韧性相关，但其他领域的应用研究表明，乐观主义者有时可以将头埋在沙子里，避免关注外部威胁，如气候变化，以保持情绪状态。那么，乐观主义者是否比非乐观主义者更容易受到气候变化信息的影响？他们做出的可持续选择是否更少？一系列操纵碳足迹能指（研究 1）和产品上的生态标签（研究 2）的实验研究发现，乐观主义者比非乐观主义者做出了更多可持续的选择，并且在气候变化电影剪辑方面，这两个群体受到同等影响可持续选择（研究 1）。乐观主义者还表现出错误的共识效应，高估了行为更像他们自己的人的比例（研究 3）。鉴于气候变化等全球性问题需要协调一致的合作努力，从长远来看，这些对他人行为方式的乐观信念可能是适应性的。设计气候变化信息以吸引乐观主义者可能是未来的一个重要考虑因素。