Eyes on the Horizon: Temporal and Social Perspectives of Climate Risk and Agricultural Decision Making among Climate-Informed Farmers

Abstract

Climate change adaptation requires that we anticipate future conditions that may deviate from our historical experiences. Our ability to do so is associated with the perceived proximity of decision-outcomes. Through analysis of semi-structured interviews with farmers in the northeastern United States, we conclude that temporal distance (now versus later) and social distance (self versus other) of climate impacts interact to play important roles in climate risk perception. Using Psychological Distance and Construal Level Theory, we identified two distinct temporal perspectives, historically oriented and future oriented. Our analysis suggests that climate-informed farmers use different temporal perspectives depending on whether they are asked to imagine the climate risks through a personal lens versus a lens reserved for the other.