How Much Do People Value Future Generations? Climate Change, Trust, and Public Support for Future-Oriented Policies - Data from Spain
type: Dataset
description: Do people care about future generations? Moral philosophers say we should, but it is unclear whether laypeople agree. In particular, humanity’s inadequate efforts to mitigate climate change could be due to public indifference or heavy discounting of future generations’ well-being. Using surveys and survey experiments in four countries—Sweden, Spain, South Korea, and China—we found that most people say they care about future generations, and would be willing to reduce their standard of living so that people can enjoy better lives in the future. However, not everyone who says they care supports two public actions that could be taken for the benefit of future generations: policies to reduce either global warming or national debt. We find evidence that much of people’s apparent lack of concern for future generations is actually due to distrust of major social institutions, and associated doubts about the effectiveness of future-oriented policies.
citation: CreativeWork
  name: Fairbrother M, Arrhenius G, Bykvist K and Campbell T (2021) Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies. Front. Polit. Sci. 3:656053. doi: 10.3389/fpos.2021.656053
conditions of access: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC
conditions of access: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
creative work status: completed
  type: DefinedTerm
  in defined term set: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/dataset-status
  term code: COMPLETED
creator: Malcolm Fairbrother
date modified: 2021-05-17
date published: 2020-12-10
funding: Grant
  funder: The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences
language: English
is part of: https://doi.org/10.5878/5dqb-rt76
keywords: Energy and natural resources
keywords: Political behaviour and attitudes
keywords: Government, political systems and organisations
keywords: Elites and leadership
keywords: Social behaviour and attitudes
keywords: Climate Science
  type: DefinedTerm
  term code: 10501
keywords: Sociology (Excluding Social Work, Social Anthropology, Demography and Criminology)
  type: DefinedTerm
  term code: 50401
keywords: Philosophy
  type: DefinedTerm
  term code: 60301
keywords: Ethics
  type: DefinedTerm
  term code: 60302
keywords: climate alteration
keywords: energy consumption
keywords: ethics
keywords: future generations
publisher: Institute for Future Studies
spatial coverage: Sweden
spatial coverage: China
spatial coverage: Spain
spatial coverage: Korea, the Republic of
temporal coverage: 2019/2019
distribution: data/FutureGenerations.ES.zip
  type: DataDownload
  additional type: data
  conditions of access: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC
  conditions of access: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  content size: 69635
  encoding format: application/zip
distribution: documentation/Questionnaire.docx
  type: DataDownload
  additional type: documentation
  conditions of access: http://publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/access-right/PUBLIC
  conditions of access: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
  content size: 17400
  encoding format: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
version: 1

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.5878/4dbq-5253

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.3389/fpos.2021.656053

Malcolm Fairbrother
type: Person
affiliation: Institute for Futures Studies
family name: Fairbrother
given name: Malcolm

The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences
type: Organization

English
type: Language
alternate name: eng

Energy and natural resources
type: DefinedTerm
description: Natural resources are assets such as land, forests, energy sources, water, minerals which exist naturally and can be used for economic production or consumption. Energy resources include fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas or coal, as well as nuclear, solar, tidal and wind or from living organisms that can be replaced.
term code: NaturalEnvironment.EnergyAndNaturalResources

Political behaviour and attitudes
type: DefinedTerm
description: Data on party political attitudes, political engagement and participation in the political process, voting behaviour, satisfaction with government. Use note: For data on specific political doctrines, use 'Political ideology'.
term code: Politics.PoliticalBehaviourAndAttitudes

Government, political systems and organisations
type: DefinedTerm
description: Issues relating to national, regional and local government, governing bodies (e.g. the Government, Parliament, local government bodies), public administration, other political organisations such as political parties. For example, data on government policies, political parties and their policies, political party leaders, trust in government bodies.
term code: Politics.GovernmentPoliticalSystemsAndOrganisations

Elites and leadership
type: DefinedTerm
description: Issues related to the existence, roles and impact of elites in society, that is, individuals or groups who have a large amount of power or influence over society, politics, wealth etc, either through decisions they make or, for example, through ideas or feelings that they express or represent. Includes issues related to influential people in all spheres of society, for example, decision-makers in political life, political party leaders, influential artists, prominent mass or social media figures etc.
term code: SocialStratificationAndGroupings.ElitesAndLeadership

Social behaviour and attitudes
type: DefinedTerm
description: Data on social behaviour, social interaction and networks, social responsibilities, social norms and rules, and attitudes towards these issues.
term code: SocietyAndCulture.SocialBehaviourAndAttitudes

climate alteration
type: DefinedTerm
description: The slow variation of climatic characteristics over time at a given place. This may be indicated by the geological record in the long term, by changes in the landforms in the intermediate term, and by vegetation changes in the short term.
term code: 1470

energy consumption
type: DefinedTerm
description: Amount of energy consumed by a person or an apparatus shown as a unit.
term code: 2715

ethics
type: DefinedTerm
description: The philosophical study of the moral value of human conduct and of the rules and principles that ought to govern it.
term code: 2980

Institute for Future Studies
type: Organization

Sweden
type: Place

China
type: Place

Spain
type: Place

Korea, the Republic of
type: Place