10/ Our findings highlight how deep-rooted cultural transmission shapes modern attention to the environment.

You can read the full paper here: palaashbhargava.github.io/Bhargava_Cli...

9/ The U-shape emerges because individuals learn about their environment for two reasons: optimizing resource use in stable conditions & protecting against extremes. 🌿🌪️

8/ We propose a theoretical framework where the value of attention to the environment depends on perceived stability, shaped through cultural transmission of ancestral experiences.

7/ Why this pattern? Attention is costly, but information is valuable—both for adapting to stable conditions and preparing for extreme events. 🌍⚖️

6/ Across all specifications, we find a U-shaped relationship! Both highly stable and highly unstable ancestral climates lead to greater attention to the environment today, while intermediate variability results in lower attention.

5/ We construct a measure of ancestral climate variability—capturing deviations from normal temperatures for each ancestral generation—and study its effect on self-reported attention to the environment from WVS and level of environmental themes in folklore. 🌱📜

4/ We match historical temperature data (1600–1920s) with ethnic group locations from Murdock’s Ethnographic Atlas. Using Ethnologue, we link World Value Survey respondents to their ethnic groups via their mother tongue & incorporate folklore data. 📖

3/ To document this, we combine historical climate data with ethnographic, linguistic & global survey data. We examine whether ancestral climate variability affects how much attention individuals and groups pay to the environment today. 📊

2/ Experiences of your ancestors are passed on as stories. Your grandma tells you a story that her great grandma told her once. These stories can shape beliefs including the ones related to the level of attention our environment warrants.

Would love to join! :)

Thank you! :)

Hi Stephanie,
Thank you for making this list! Would love to be added.

Thank you for the bump up, Natalie! I am glad you liked the paper.

Thanks Stephen! As Sandy mentioned, the reason behind running the experiment in two levels was to figure out how local effects can conflict with general equilibrium effects. And that is exactly what I document. Happy to chat more about it :)

Thank you for sharing this paper, Sandy!

I am glad you liked the paper, Umut!

I guess it would be interesting to see if this finding does extend to workplace in general. I would love to carry that research h out if given a chance.