Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques VI01:30

Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques VI

232
Adopting a healthier lifestyle often requires overcoming significant challenges, but leveraging psychological, social, and cultural resources can facilitate meaningful change. Effective self-change hinges on understanding and applying key tools such as motivation and goal setting, which help sustain efforts toward long-term health benefits.
Motivation and Self-Determination
Motivation, the driving force behind behavior, plays a pivotal role at every stage of the change process. The research...
232
Cognitive Dissonance01:38

Cognitive Dissonance

36.8K
Social psychologists have documented that feeling good about ourselves and maintaining positive self-esteem is a powerful motivator of human behavior (Tavris & Aronson, 2008). In the United States, members of the predominant culture typically think very highly of themselves and view themselves as good people who are above average on many desirable traits (Ehrlinger, Gilovich, & Ross, 2005). Often, our behavior, attitudes, and beliefs are affected when we experience a threat to our...
36.8K
Drive-Reduction Theory: Push Theory of Motivation01:27

Drive-Reduction Theory: Push Theory of Motivation

1.1K
Clark Hull's drive-reduction theory, introduced in the 1940s and 1950s and often termed the "push theory" of motivation, provides a framework for understanding how biological and learned drives influence behavior. Hull suggested that motivation originates from the need to alleviate physiological tension caused by unmet biological necessities. The theory proposes that when a basic need, such as hunger or sleep, goes unfulfilled, it creates an internal imbalance. This imbalance, or...
1.1K
Protecting Self-Esteem01:27

Protecting Self-Esteem

181
Self-esteem, a central component of psychological well-being, is actively maintained through various cognitive and behavioral strategies. Individuals employ specific mechanisms to preserve a positive self-concept and mitigate threats to their self-worth, particularly in contexts involving social evaluation or personal feedback. Four primary techniques are commonly used to sustain self-esteem.Manipulating AppraisalsOne prominent strategy involves manipulating appraisals from others. Individuals...
181
Self-Discrepancy Theory02:45

Self-Discrepancy Theory

18.9K
One influential perspective on what motivates people's behavior is detailed in Tory Higgin's self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). He proposed that people hold disagreeing internal representations of themselves that lead to different emotional states.  
18.9K
Motivational Bias01:25

Motivational Bias

305
Cognitive bias results from limitations in thinking and information processing, leading to systematic errors in judgment. Conversely, motivational bias stems from personal desires or emotions, causing distortions in perception to align with self-interest. Motivational bias influences how individuals perceive and attribute causes to events, often shaped by personal needs, goals, and self-esteem preservation. This bias can distort judgment, leading to inaccurate assessments of success, failure,...
305

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Stochastic choice drives variability in patch foraging decisions in humans and rats.

Communications psychology·2026
Same author

Politics embodied: How politics shapes and is shaped by the bodily experience of emotions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood.

European journal of social psychology·2026
Same author

Retrieving noncued episodic memories by taking a cascading walk down memory lane(s).

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2026
Same author

The social dimension of apathy: evidence for a distinct domain from 11,243 individuals across health and neurocognitive disorders.

Translational psychiatry·2026
Same author

Validity and Reliability of the Heart Rate Matching Task: A Novel Measure of Heart Rate Estimation.

Psychophysiology·2026
Same journal

Teams perform worse when newcomers hold critical information than when original group members do.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Auditory perceptual maps in humans and mice share common structures and predict perceptual decisions in discrimination learning.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Cross-cultural evidence for positive control and mind-mindedness as buffers for parental distress.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Why sycophantic LLMs may imperil interactive norms between humans.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Early detection of distinct language development in infants of mothers with severe mental illness using fNIRS.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Real-time cognitive-affective dynamics of failure feedback in a technology-based learning task.

Communications psychology·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 12, 2026

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
06:42

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

Published on: September 28, 2018

12.1K

Psychological interventions that decrease psychological distance or challenge system justification increase

Jo Cutler1,2,3, Luis Sebastian Contreras-Huerta4,5,6,7,8, Boryana Todorova9

  • 1Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. J.L.Cutler@bham.ac.uk.

Communications Psychology
|November 5, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Two psychological interventions effectively increased effortful pro-environmental actions by reducing psychological distance and framing climate action as patriotic. These findings are crucial for motivating climate-friendly behaviors globally.

More Related Videos

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children
07:01

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Published on: March 1, 2019

8.4K
Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal
06:45

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal

Published on: April 18, 2017

6.6K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 12, 2026

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
06:42

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

Published on: September 28, 2018

12.1K
Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children
07:01

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Published on: March 1, 2019

8.4K
Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal
06:45

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal

Published on: April 18, 2017

6.6K

Area of Science:

  • Psychological Science
  • Environmental Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Climate change necessitates widespread pro-environmental actions, but human aversion to effort hinders engagement.
  • Identifying psychological interventions to increase willingness to exert effort for climate mitigation is critical.
  • Understanding individual differences in motivation and effort aversion is key to designing effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate psychological interventions that enhance motivation for effortful pro-environmental behaviors.
  • To quantify the impact of interventions on willingness to exert physical effort for climate protection.
  • To explore individual-level factors influencing motivation to benefit the climate.

Main Methods:

  • A large-scale study (N=3055) across six diverse countries using an effort-based decision-making task (Pro-Environmental Effort Task).
  • Participants experienced one of 11 interventions or a control condition before choosing to exert physical effort to reduce carbon emissions.
  • Computational modeling was used to quantify motivation for climate action versus a matched non-environmental cause.

Main Results:

  • Two interventions—reducing psychological distance and framing climate action as patriotic/preserving way of life—consistently increased effortful pro-environmental behaviors.
  • Motivation to benefit the climate correlated with belief in climate change and support for pro-environmental policies.
  • Trait apathy and effort aversion were associated with lower motivation for both climate and non-environmental causes.

Conclusions:

  • Psychological interventions can effectively promote effortful climate action by altering perceptions and framing.
  • Reducing psychological distance and leveraging social identity (patriotism) are promising strategies for climate engagement.
  • Findings offer crucial insights for designing scalable interventions to encourage necessary pro-environmental behaviors.