Evaluation of environmental problems: A coherence model of cognition and emotion

Abstract

This article presents a computational framework for understanding how media information about environmental problems influences cognition, emotion, and behaviour. The theoretical assumptions are formally specified and implemented in the computer model ITERA (Intuitive Thinking in Environmental Risk Appraisal) using a constraint satisfaction network. The model makes predictions about the cognitive evaluation of environmental problems, about the development of distinct emotions (anger and sadness), and about the resulting action tendencies. In addition, the model describes how cognitions and emotions interact in making judgements entailing coherence biases. In three experiments (N = 258), we presented manipulated media reports about environmental damages. The effects of three variables (knowledge about the riskiness of an action; higher goal of the actor; voluntariness of the actor) were compared with the model's predictions. The empirical data confirmed the predicted coherence effects for the cognitive appraisal. Likewise, the model's predictions for anger corresponded well with the empirical results. Assumptions concerning sadness, however, were only partially confirmed.