Mechanisms of Intergenerational Environmental Stewardship Activated by COVID-19: Gratitude, Fairness, and Legacy Motives

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an immense loss of human life, increased economic uncertainty, and negatively impacted individuals' mental health close relationships. At the same time, experts have noted a concurrent improvement in many environmental quality indicators, including significant decreases both localized air pollution global greenhouse gas emissions. These positive trends are due to changes behavior necessitated by social distancing self-quarantining measures (e.g., reduced car travel). However, there is already evidence that these improvements only temporary. This suggests more intentional efforts will be necessary order maintain benefits address major issues as world gets back some version pre-pandemic activity. Still, our collective experience over course provides clear such change possible on rapid timetable. Our individual responses reveal we do indeed ability respond novel societal threats highly coordinated effective ways, suggesting confronting existential threat climate may fact feasible. Here, theorize potentially activated made salient key psychological mechanisms—including norms fairness reciprocity, feelings gratitude, consideration personal legacies—that previous empirical work can harnessed promote beneficent intergenerational decision-making aimed at solving challenges descendants face twenty-first century.