Strategies to Boost Collective Climate Action

The risks of climate change to human wellbeing are serious. Appropriate mitigation and adaptation require structural changes that are only likely to occur as a result of collective climate action. Danielle Goldwert, Madalina Vlasceanu, and colleagues explored what causes people to take collective climate action in a megastudy capable of directly comparing 17 behavioral interventions. The 17 interventions were derived from an open call to behavioral scientists and advocacy experts and included various framings and arguments such as emphasizing the benefits of climate action on health and jobs or highlighting successful examples of collective action. Over 31,000 US residents, recruited through Connect by Cloud Research, an online data collection platform, were given one of the 17 interventions—or no intervention, for the control group. Participants were then given the opportunity to engage in collective climate action of various kinds. One of the most effective interventions was highlighting successful examples of collective action and emphasizing collective action's emotional benefits to participants. This intervention increased public awareness advocacy, such as committing to attend a climate march, by ten percentage points and increased political advocacy, such as supporting political campaigns of climate-friendly representatives, by six percentage points. Appealing to the purity and sacredness of "America's pristine nature" increased financial advocacy by six percentage points. The purity intervention was even efficacious among Republican participants. By contrast, drawing attention to the personal toll of climate disruptions was most effective in increasing personal lifestyle change commitments such as promising to fly less or eat less beef. Framing pro-environmental behavior as patriotic was the intervention most effective for nudging participants to real action: writing a letter to a representative that was actually delivered. According to the authors, the findings can help guide those who wish to galvanize the public to collective climate action.