The Behavioral Paradoxes of Air Conditioning
How do we escape the brain-melting effects of hot weather? In affluent countries, many of us cope with the heat by cranking up the AC. But as we know too well, AC is also a major source of emissions, speeding up climate change even more.
Air conditioning: A vicious cycle
Even at the best of times, we’re not great at prioritizing our future selves. When it’s hot outside and we become angry and irritable, we become even more prone to hyperbolic discounting, which causes us to place more value on immediate gains than we do on larger, long-term ones. Thus, when we crank up the AC, we perpetuate the air conditioning paradox.
But our reliance on AC is paradoxical in more ways than one. At the same time that AC is helping to make the planet hotter, it’s also reducing our psychological tolerance for said heat. The “adaptive comfort model” outlines how, the more accustomed we become to a certain standard of comfort, the more unbearable the outdoor heat feels to us.1,2
References
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- Economy, P. (2021, January 5). How All That Air Conditioning Is Messing With Your Mind. Inc.com. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/how-all-that-air-conditioning-is-messing-with-your-mind.html
- Raypole, C. (2020, September 23). Climate Change Taking a Toll on Your Mental Health? How to Cope With ‘Eco-Anxiety.’ Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/eco-anxiety#tips-for-kids
- Bourque, F., & Cunsolo Willox, A. (2014, August). Climate change: The next challenge for public mental health? International Review of Psychiatry, 26(4), 415–422. https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2014.925851
- Hickman, C. (2020, October 1). We need to (find a way to) talk about . . . Eco-anxiety. Journal of Social Work Practice, 34(4), 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844166
- Over two-thirds of young people experience eco-anxiety as Friends of the Earth launch campaign to turn anxiety into action. (n.d.). Friends of the Earth. Retrieved from https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/over-twothirds-young-people-experience-ecoanxiety-friends-earth-launch-campaign-turn
- Hartley, C. A., & Phelps, E. A. (2012, July). Anxiety and Decision-Making. Biological Psychiatry, 72(2), 113–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.12.027
- Gillette, H. (2021, July 1). Ways to Prevent Anxiety from Affecting Your Decision-Making. Psych Central. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/anxiety/anxiety-and-the-power-of-quick-decisions-how-speeding-up-your-decision-making-can-lower-anxiety
- Bolakhe, S. (2022, April). Rethinking air conditioning amid climate change. Knowable Magazine. https://knowablemagazine.org/article/food-environment/2022/rethinking-air-conditioning-amid-climate-change#:~:text=Refrigerants%20are%20chemicals%20that%20are,a%20major%20impact%20on%20climate.
- Alan Miller (Ed.). (2020). Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report. In UN Environment Programme. https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/33094/CoolRep.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
- Underwood, E. (2021, June 23). How to Prevent Air Conditioners from Heating the Planet. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-prevent-air-conditioners-from-heating-the-planet/
- How India is solving its cooling challenge. (2020, February 8). World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/india-heat-cooling-challenge-temperature-air-conditioning
- History of Air Conditioning. (n.d.). Energy.gov. Retrieved from https://www.energy.gov/articles/history-air-conditioning
- Butler, C. (2018, July 4). The war over the thermostat and the psychology of air conditioning. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-ontario-office-too-cold-hot-air-conditioning-1.4732505
- Julien, A. (2019, July 26). Here Are 6 Science-Backed Ways to Keep Buildings Cool Without Air Conditioning : ScienceAlert. Retrieved from https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-other-ways-to-keep-buildings-cool-without-energy-intensive-air-conditioning
- Coppola, I. G. (n.d.). Eco-Anxiety in “the Climate Generation”: Is Action an Antidote? UVM ScholarWorks. Retrieved September 8, 2022, from https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/envstheses/71/
- Palmiter, D., Alvord, M., Dorlen, R., Comas-Diaz, L., Luthar, S. S., Maddi, S. R., O’Neill, H. K., Saakvitne, K. W., & Tedeschi, R. G. (2020, February). Building your resilience. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/building-your-resilience
- Environmental Identity. (2021, April 21). Climate Psychology Alliance. https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/handbook/281-environmental-identity
- United Nations Environment Programme and International Energy Agency (2020). Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report. UNEP, Nairobi and IEA, Paris.
About the Author
Lindsey Turk
Lindsey Turk is a Summer Content Associate at The Decision Lab. She holds a Master of Professional Studies in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Boston University. Over the last few years, she’s gained experience in customer service, consulting, research, and communications in various industries. Before The Decision Lab, Lindsey served as a consultant to the US Department of State, working with its international HIV initiative, PEPFAR. Through Cornell, she also worked with a health food company in Kenya to improve access to clean foods and cites this opportunity as what cemented her interest in using behavioral science for good.
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