Environmental future: Collating spatial and temporal trends Raj Surya B1, Bindu P2 1Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, University of Kerala. Reprint Request and Correspondence 2Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Kerala. Trivandrum, 695581. Email id: bindupsych67@gmail.com Online published on 10 September, 2019. Abstract Education is regarded as an important instrument and means for generating proper awareness and adequate knowledge and skills regarding environmental protection. Such knowledge can influence how one perceives the current environmental conditions and the sustainability of resources in future, and plays an important part in an individual's choice to engage in proenvironmental behavior as well as in environmental policy making. Empirical evidence suggest that a predisposition toward two factors, viz., spatial optimism (things are better here than there) and temporal pessimism (things will get worse) significantly affects the assessment of environmental conditions at a personal level (Gifford et al., 2009). While attempts to investigate the assessments of environmental conditions at different spatial (local, national, global) and temporal (current and future) levels by international samples are gradually gaining momentum, similar studies in the Indian milieu are relatively unheard of. It is in this context that the present study has been undertaken which aims at a gender-wise and age-wise comparison of the temporal trend (current and future) of environmental conditions as perceived by young adults at the three spatial levels: local, national, and global. The sample of the study (N=140) consist of young adults in the age range of 18 to 30 years randomly chosen from the various colleges and departments of the University of Kerala. Environment Futures Scale (Gifford, 2009) was used to measure the spatial and temporal environmental comparative optimism or pessimism. The results of the study indicates that spatial optimism and temporal pessimism exist among the respondents and age and gender were not found to influence the participants’ assessment of present and expected future environmental conditions. Top Keywords Optimism bias, Spatial bias, Temporal bias. Top |