This research empirically establishes that interpersonal population diversity helps explain worldwide differences in climate change policies. It advances the hypothesis that heterogeneity in the composition of genetic traits, originating from the prehistoric course of the exodus of Homo sapiens from East Africa tens of thousands of years ago, is a major barrier to implementing stringent climate-friendly policies and measures. The underlying intuition is that genetically fragmented societies, characterized by mistrust, preference heterogeneity and persistent poor-quality institutions, find it difficult to sustain collective climate action. Using data for 84 world economies, I find evidence that prehistorically determined genetic diversity has a negative influence on the stringency of climate-related policies and measures. Furthermore, I document that descendants of ancestral societies with greater genetic diversity are less likely to exhibit pro-climate behavior, consistent with a mechanism of inter-generational transmission of cultural norms of mistrust and non-cooperation. The findings suggest that strengthening national responses to changing climate conditions requires considering the long-term legacy of interpersonal population diversity.

这项研究凭经验确定，人际人口多样性有助于解释全球气候变化政策的差异。它提出了遗传性状组成的异质性假设，起源于智人外流的史前过程来自数万年前的东非，是实施严格的气候友好政策和措施的主要障碍。潜在的直觉是，以不信任、偏好异质性和持续低质量机构为特征的基因碎片化社会发现难以维持集体气候行动。使用 84 个世界经济体的数据，我发现证据表明史前决定的遗传多样性对气候相关政策和措施的严格性有负面影响。此外，我记录了具有更大遗传多样性的祖先社会的后代不太可能表现出亲气候行为，这与不信任和不合作的文化规范的代际传递机制一致。