Abstract

Faced with global challenges, such as environmental degradation, social inequality, and discrimination against marginalized societal groups, identifying strategies to promote concern for the well-being of others and to encourage prosocial action is of high relevance. Caring about others and acting prosocially, however, takes up emotional and cognitive resources of which humans only have a limited amount. In this research I suggest that addressing the fundamental human need of establishing and maintaining a positive self-image may free up resources to engage in prosociality. I explore the potential of positive self-directed emotions in a suite of studies across two cultural contexts, the United States and Nigeria, looking at pro-environmental decision making, charitable giving and volunteering, as well as discrimination against marginalized societal groups.

Dr. Claudia R. Schneider received her PhD in Psychology from Columbia University, where she worked at the Centre for Research on Environmental Decisions, the Earth Institute. As an Ivy League Exchange Scholar she furthermore held a graduate research position at Princeton University. She currently works as a Research Associate at the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication and the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Laboratory, University of Cambridge. Her research explores avenues to address society-level social issues, such as climate change mitigation, intergroup conflict, and the balanced and transparent communication of evidence.