Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries

Climate Collaboration

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries

Climate Collaboration

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions' effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior-several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people's initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	eadj5778
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	10
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj5778
Publication status	Published - 7 Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Humans
Climate Change
Intention
Policy
Behavioral Sciences

Access to Document

10.1126/sciadv.adj5778Licence: CC BY

sciadv.adj5778
© 2024 The Authors
Final published version, 1.98 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries",

abstract = "Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions' effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior-several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people's initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.",

keywords = "Humans, Climate Change, Intention, Policy, Behavioral Sciences",

author = "{Climate Collaboration} and Madalina Vlasceanu and Doell, {Kimberly C} and Bak-Coleman, {Joseph B} and Boryana Todorova and Berkebile-Weinberg, {Michael M} and Grayson, {Samantha J} and Yash Patel and Danielle Goldwert and Yifei Pei and Alek Chakroff and Ekaterina Pronizius and {van den Broek}, {Karlijn L} and Denisa Vlasceanu and Sara Constantino and Morais, {Michael J} and Philipp Schumann and Steve Rathje and Ke Fang and Aglioti, {Salvatore Maria} and Mark Alfano and Alvarado-Yepez, {Andy J} and Ang{\'e}lica Andersen and Frederik Anseel and Apps, {Matthew A J} and Chillar Asadli and Awuor, {Fonda Jane} and Flavio Azevedo and Piero Basaglia and B{\'e}langer, {Jocelyn J} and Sebastian Berger and Paul Bertin and Micha{\l} Bia{\l}ek and Olga Bialobrzeska and Michelle Blaya-Burgo and Bleize, {Dani{\"e}lle N M} and Simen B{\o} and Lea Boecker and Boggio, {Paulo S} and Sylvie Borau and Bj{\"o}rn Bos and Ayoub Bouguettaya and Markus Brauer and Cameron Brick and Tymofii Brik and Roman Briker and Tobias Brosch and Ondrej Buchel and Daniel Buonauro and Radhika Butalia and Lusine Grigoryan",

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AU - Chakroff, Alek

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AU - Azevedo, Flavio

AU - Basaglia, Piero

AU - Bélanger, Jocelyn J

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AU - Brik, Tymofii

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AB - Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions' effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior-several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people's initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.

KW - Humans

KW - Climate Change

KW - Intention

KW - Policy

KW - Behavioral Sciences

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