Systems thinking and environmental concern

Abstract

Systems thinking is thought to facilitate complex decision-making, but relatively little is known about its psychological underpinning. We present three studies that situate a measure of the construct in relation to other dispositional measures that have received more attention in environmental psychology and by testing whether the mindset predicts behavior in a set of novel decision making tasks. In Study 1, we find that systems thinkers tend to believe in scientific consensus, recognize risks posed by climate change, and support policy interventions to address climate change; systems thinking was negatively related to conspiracist and free-market ideation. In Studies 2 and 3 we find that systems thinkers ascribe more value to the natural worldboth in monetary terms as well as on social and ecological grounds. The findings suggest that models of environmental cognition can be improved by measuring peoples' tendency to engage in systems thinking.

Systems thinking as a pathway to global warming beliefs and attitudes through an ecological worldview

“…More recent research also suggests that systems thinking may activate a tendency to "value, care for and feel connected to entities that extend distally beyond the self" (ref. 12, p. 224), supporting other perspectives and previous research (8,9,13). Further, by definition, systems thinking refers to a general cognitive paradigm of viewing phenomena as interconnected and dynamic; it is not limited to the environmental domain, but includes other systems such as society and the economy (2, 3).…”

“…Although systems thinking is often emphasized as central to learning about and understanding climate science and other environmental issues (e.g., natural resource management) (7), research on the effects of systems thinking as a cognitive framework or ability is nascent. For example, prior research suggests that systems thinking is associated with proenvironmental tendencies including connectedness to the natural world, environmental behavior, perceptions that climate change is a serious threat, and support for climate policies such as energy taxes (3,8,9). One recent study found that systems thinking was more strongly linked to an ecological worldview (i.e., the New Ecological Paradigm) (10) than were other measures of environmental attitudes; specifically, connectedness to nature and biospheric environmental concern (3).…”

A social-ecological impact assessment for public lands management: application of a conceptual and methodological framework

“…By using this causal pathway to articulate the interdependencies of ecosystem services, social processes, potential environmental changes, and potential impacts, workshop participants became, in effect, social-ecological systems thinkers. Recent research in environmental psychology suggests that a systems thinking mindset might be more malleable or amenable than political ideologies, for example, and that systems thinkers have a capacity to think more broadly about the range of potential environmental changes and consequences stemming from a decision or intervention (Lezak and Thibodeau 2016). The range of topics covered in our workshops demonstrated the importance of systems thinking using an integrated social-ecological framework for public lands where individual and community well-being depend on the environment.…”

Identifying Infrastructure project uncertainties during project initiation using system thinking

“…The utilization is thought to facilitate complex decision making by various experts in the field [8] (Lezak and Thibodeau, 2016).In infrastructure projects where activities are carried out in a sequential and dynamic order the utilization of system thinking will be quite useful. This will assist greatly in understanding the complexity posed in executing infrastructure projects.…”