Reflection on Dan Gilbert Interview

I was quite surprised to learn that, as Professor Gilbert explained, fear is not an effective motivator for human behavior, at least when it comes to efforts to mitigate climate change. This surprises me in part because of the evolutionary origins of fear — namely, as both an impulse to avoid dangers in the moment but also to prepare to avoid coming dangers. One would thing that such an evolutionary mechanism would allow us to make the long-term preparations needed to avert the worst effects of climate change — and one would expect fear in general to be an effective motivator given how often it is used in the political messaging of our times. Listen to any political rhetoric in the U.S. and it's laced with fears about the economy, fears about the fate of democracy, fears about changes to society, and of course, fears about climate change. I don’t doubt Professor Gilbert’s conclusion here — but I think it’s clear that many of the people responsible for persuasion around these issues haven’t gotten the memo. This might suggest that more accurate predictions about the effects of climate change will not in themselves be an effective motivator to spur preventative action.