EMOTION.

Emotions are intense

subjective states that
occur in response to
something we experience.

In contrast to mood, which

means a prolonged, and
less intense, state in
response to something we
experience.

any mental experience

with high intensity and
high hedonic content
(pleasure/displeasure).
(Cabanac, 2002).
 Emotion.
Knowing something does not
always lead to action.
Emotion and Pro-environmental Behaviours

How do you feel when you…

ride a public transportation instead of the
comfortable private car?
taking cold shower instead of long warm
shower in the winter?
buying organic food ?
do recycling?
 Emotion and Pro-environmental Behaviours

Anticipated emotions.
The extent to which people believe in
engaging in behaviour will elicit positive or
negative emotions.

Emotional motives.
People can thus be motivated to engage in
a particular behaviour because they
believe it will make them feel good or it will
help them to avoid feeling bad.

Example: driving individual cars

 Emotion and Pro-environmental Behaviours

Hedonic view.
Emotions having roots in a pleasurable (or
unpleasurable) experience. Some
environmentally friendly behaviours can
be inherently pleasurable, and lead to
positive emotions.

Eudaimonic view.
Emotions having roots in a meaningful (or
meaningless) experience. Pro-
environmental behaviour is often
regarded as moral behaviour, and
engaging in it will make people feel
meaningful.
QUESTION TO CONTEMPLATE
So far, engineering is a field of
science that was philosophically
born from the positivistic
paradigm. Engineering is often
said to be "value-free". However,
the example above mentions the
relationship between emotion
and infrastructure/environment.
What do you think?