Urban heat is an increasingly pervasive and embodied climate stressor in cities, yet exposure to the same thermal conditions does not produce uniform behavioural or policy responses. While some individuals translate lived heat into greater engagement and support for collective mitigation, others primarily turn to private, energy-intensive coping such as air-conditioning. This study asks a psychologically grounded question: why does the same experiential signal—recurring heat—split into systematically different behavioural and valuation pathways?


Using original household survey data from Singapore, a dense tropical city characterised by chronic heat exposure and widespread access to mechanical cooling, we analyse behavioural heterogeneity through psychological archetypes. Rather than defining groups by demographics or observed behaviours, archetypes are identified ex ante using stable psychological orientations, including psychological distance, perceived control, normative orientation, and responsibility attribution. This design allows us to examine how distinct psychological filtering regimes shape downstream responses to the same environmental stressor.


We compare archetypes in terms of perceived heat impacts, reliance on air-conditioning-based cooling, climate-relevant behaviours, and stated economic preferences elicited through willingness-to-pay measures for collective outdoor heat mitigation versus private indoor cooling improvements. The results reveal a clear behavioural fork. For some archetypes, lived heat strengthens engagement and support for collective mitigation. For others, it primarily triggers short-term private coping, increasing reliance on energy-intensive cooling while weakening behavioural engagement and support for collective interventions. Across valuation models, perceived heat impacts are associated with higher willingness to pay, whereas greater reliance on air-conditioning is linked to lower valuation for collective measures, indicating a behavioural buffering effect under chronic heat stress.


These findings show that urban heat is filtered through distinct psychological decision regimes, with direct implications for targeted behavioural and policy interventions in hot urban environments.