Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Introduction

Human-induced climate change represents the single largest threat to our well-being and health in the next century. Working to prevent or mitigate this crisis is the greatest challenge facing tomorrow's workforce. The climate crisis raises fundamental questions of ethics, including how to navigate trade-offs between different goods and evils. For example, the climate crisis sharpens the dilemma between producing enough energy to lift millions out of poverty, or prioritizing emissions reductions that will benefit future generations. Therefore, an introduction to basic ethical theory is useful in approaching these types of issues. Psychological research on how people tend to approach ethics and ethical dilemmas is also helpful, as being able to anticipate others' reactions is valuable for decision-makers at all levels. Furthermore, the climate crisis also requires a rational and nuanced approach to assigning responsibility. The climate crisis concerns all people on Earth, and one can argue that both states, companies, and individuals should take responsibility for their emissions. To think sensibly about the social responsibility of states, companies, and individuals, it is also useful to be aware of theory and research on how people perceive and attribute responsibility for different outcomes in different situations.

The climate crisis requires a global behavioral change. To succeed in this, we need good policies, innovative businesses with good technology, but also good models for human cognition and behavior related to climate issues. The latter can be understood as climate psychology, which is an emerging field within psychological research. In addition to addressing the political, economic, and technological perspectives on the climate crisis, the field will focus extensively on how our intuitive psychological apparatus can lead decision-makers to systematic errors. By better understanding our own cognitive processes in relation to the climate crisis, there is hope that more of these pitfalls can be avoided.

Key objectives of the course include:

• Providing participants with research-based and balanced knowledge about human-induced climate change, including its causes and consequences
• Increasing participants' research-based knowledge about the miscalibration of the human cognitive apparatus in the face of global crises like human-induced climate change
• Providing participants with research-based knowledge about the connection between thoughts, emotions, actions, and individual carbon footprints
• Increasing participants' level of reflection on their own role in the climate crisis and providing concrete tools and measures for those who wish to engage in the issue
• Providing participants with an explanation of the most fruitful choices to successfully achieve the 2-degree target

Course content

• The Climate Crisis: Industry, Welfare, and the Greenhouse Effect
• Climate Psychology: Human Cognitive Processes in the Face of the Crisis
• Ethics: Different Approaches to Questions of Right and Wrong
• Responsibility: The Responsibility of States, Companies, and Individuals The Temporal and Spatial Dimensions of the Climate Crisis: How Human Judgment and Decision-Making are Influenced by Temporal and Geographic Distance
• Magnitude and Number: How Human Judgment and Decision-Making are Influenced by the Size of the Problem
• Social Comparison: How Attitudes and Behaviors are Shaped in Interaction with Others
• Solutions to the Climate Crisis: Political, Economic, Technological, and Individual Strategies to Solve the Crisis.