The role of cognitive reappraisal in the implementation of pro-environmental behaviors: From emotion regulation to climate (in)action
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- Our emotions and the way we regulate them seem to play a key role when it comes to the way we face climate change. Yet, little is known about the efficacy of emotional regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal in this background. We carried out an experimental study (N=568) to better understand the role of cognitive reappraisal in relation to environmental behaviors and the emotions experienced when facing information about the climate crisis. The study took place in two steps as the environmental behaviors were assessed before and several weeks after the participants were assigned in one of the three conditions groups to watch a video. The main results show that cognitive reappraisal does not moderate the relationship between the video condition and environmental behaviors. However, they reveal three findings : (1) the necessity to differentiate two forms of reappraisal in the context of climate change (i.e. passive and active). (2) reconsider the putative adaptiveness of reappraisal in the context of climate change, whereas cognitive reappraisal is mostly seen as an adaptive strategy. (3) take gender into account as it seems to strongly influence the emotion regulation processes.