Does an Imaginary Trip to the Future Increase the Contribution to Climate Change Mitigation?

In this paper, we study whether and how the imaginary trip to the future (ITF) as a mechanism will affect people’s attitudes toward future generations. In a preregistered lab experiment, we ask subjects to take an imaginary trip to 2060 and spend 10 min writing a short essay about their experiences. After that, subjects return to the present and are asked to donate to a climate change mitigation initiative. We also measured subjects’ discount rates using a multiple-price list. We recruited 203 subjects and found no treatment effect on average donation. The discount rate is negatively related to the education level and positively related to belief in climate change. We found subjects with higher discount rates and income donate more than others. Subjects’ climate attitude also affects their donations.