Fostering collective climate action and leadership: Insights from a pilot experiment involving mindfulness and compassion

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Lena Ramstetter
  • Silke Rupprecht
  • Luis Mundaca
  • Walter Osika
  • Cecilia U.D. Stenfors
  • Johannes Klackl
  • Christine Wamsler
Summary Recent research suggests that mindfulness, compassion, and self-compassion relate to inner transformative qualities/capacities and intermediary factors that can support increased pro-environmental behavior and attitudes across individual, collective, organizational, and system levels. However, current insights focus on the individual level, are restricted to certain sustainability fields, and wider experimental evidence is scarce and contradictory. Our pilot study addresses this gap and tests the aforementioned proposition in the context of an intervention: an EU Climate Leadership Program for high-level decision-makers. The intervention was found to have significant effects on transformative qualities/capacities, intermediary factors, and pro-environmental behaviors and engagement across all levels. The picture is, however, more complex for pro-environmental attitudes. With due limitations (e.g., small sample size), this preliminary evidence confirms the feasibility and potential of mindfulness- and compassion-based interventions to foster inner-outer transformation for sustainability and climate action. Aspects that should be taken into account in larger confirmatory trials are discussed.
OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer106191
ZeitschriftiScience
Jahrgang26
Ausgabenummer3
Anzahl der Seiten25
ISSN2589-0042
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 17.03.2023

Bibliographische Notiz

Funding Information:
The research was supported by three projects funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas : (i) Mind4Change (grant number 2019-00390 ; full title: Agents of Change: Mind, Cognitive Bias and Decision-Making in a Context of Social and Climate Change); (ii) TransVision (grant number 2019-01969 ; full title: Transition Visions: Coupling Society, Well-being and Energy Systems for Transitioning to a Fossil-free Society); and (iii) Green Resilience to Crisis (grant number 2020-02888 ). Special thanks go to Jeroen Janss (The Inner Green Deal), Liane Stephan (The Inner Green Deal), Gustav Osberg (LUCSUS), and Emma Li Johansson (LUCSUS) for their input and assistance during the research process.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)

DOI