Moderating spillover: Focusing on personal sustainable behavior rarely hinders and can boost climate policy support

Sparkman, Gregg; Attari, Shahzeen Z.; Weber, Elke U.

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2021.102150

Cited by 28 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Previous studies using this approach have found that selecting the personal behaviors that one has performed from a list (i.e., a checklist-only condition) decreases support for a carbon tax paid by individuals [14]. However, a subsequent study found a negative spillover when the tax was framed as being paid by individuals, but not when it was framed as being paid by industry [18]. In addition, asking participants to reflect on the reasons they save energy in their household (i.e., a checklist + internalization condition) attenuated the negative spillover effect observed in one study and resulted in positive spillover in another [18].…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…However, correlational analyses do not provide insight into whether changing one behavior causes changes in another behavior, and thus are not actually testing for spillover [16]. Some studies have investigated spillover effects from personal behaviors to policy support [14], [18], which is not behavioral spillover per se, because policy support is an attitudinal rather than a behavioral measure (e.g., "I support a carbon tax").…”

Section: By Buying Their Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, the existing published studies on this topic are very underpowered (i.e., 12.7% median power for intentions and 5% median power for behaviors) [25], which can lead to small effects going undetected or to overestimating effects. Although one well-powered study showed that reflecting on the reasons for personal mitigation behaviors can induce positive spillover, the study focused on spillover onto policy support, not collective behavior [18]. We examine collective behavior and conduct studies that are well-powered to detect small effects.…”

Section: By Buying Their Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Does personal climate change mitigation behavior influence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States

Lacroix

Carman²,

Goldberg³

et al. 2022

Energy Research & Social Science

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Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: By Buying Their Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: By Buying Their Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Does personal climate change mitigation behavior influence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States

Lacroix

Carman²,

Goldberg³

et al. 2022

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…For example, in a home-energy-feedback program, one could refer to utility customers who saved energy as “thoughtful energy users” or “energy savers,” rather than just saying “they saved energy,” or emphasize that saving energy reflects values of not being wasteful, rather than progress toward being less wasteful. In some cases, framing that emphasizes the relationship between action and identity can lead to positive spillovers between climate action and policy support (Sparkman et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Devil In the Details Of Social-norm Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling Up Change: A Critical Review and Practical Guide to Harnessing Social Norms for Climate Action

Constantino

Sparkman

Kraft‐Todd

et al. 2022

Psychol Sci Public Interest

Self Cite

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Anthropogenic carbon emissions have the potential to trigger changes in climate and ecosystems that would be catastrophic for the well-being of humans and other species. Widespread shifts in production and consumption patterns are urgently needed to address climate change. Although transnational agreements and national policy are necessary for a transition to a fully decarbonized global economy, fluctuating political priorities and lobbying by vested interests have slowed these efforts. Against this backdrop, bottom-up pressure from social movements and shifting social norms may offer a complementary path to a more sustainable economy. Furthermore, norm change may be an important component of decarbonization policies by accelerating or strengthening the impacts of other demand-side measures. Individual actions and policy support are social processes—they are intimately linked to expectations about the actions and beliefs of others. Although prevailing social norms often reinforce the status quo and unsustainable development pathways, social dynamics can also create widespread and rapid shifts in cultural values and practices, including increasing pressure on politicians to enact ambitious policy. We synthesize literature on social-norm influence, measurement, and change from the perspectives of psychology, anthropology, sociology, and economics. We discuss the opportunities and challenges for the use of social-norm and social-tipping interventions to promote climate action. Social-norm interventions aimed at addressing climate change or other social dilemmas are promising but no panacea. They require in-depth contextual knowledge, ethical consideration, and situation-specific tailoring and testing to understand whether they can be effectively implemented at scale. Our review aims to provide practitioners with insights and tools to reflect on the promises and pitfalls of such interventions in diverse contexts.

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“…Narrating intentional states may also enable readers to experience their own lives in ways that match the protagonist’s fictional life, and identification with the protagonist may encourage readers to adopt similar pro-environmental values and goals. Related research has found that connecting pro-environmental actions with intrinsic motivation, values and identity can encourage climate policy support and catalyse positive pro-environmental behavioural spill-overs 31 , 32 . Personal stories of intentional pro-environmental action may prompt readers to reflect on their own pro-environmental motivations and values, and could therefore be explored as a novel tool to address the pesky challenge of motivating climate policy support across different domains.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories of intentional action mobilise climate policy support and action intentions

Sabherwal

Shreedhar

2022

Sci Rep

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What makes a climate story effective? We examined if short fiction stories about everyday pro-environmental behaviours motivate climate policy support, and individual and collective climate action in a nationally representative experiment (N = 903 UK adults). The story featuring protagonists driven by pro-environmental intentions (i.e., the intentional environmentalist narrative) increased participants’ support for pro-climate policies and intentions to take both individual and collective pro-environmental actions, more so than did stories featuring protagonists whose pro-environmental behaviours were driven by intentions to gain social status, to protect their health, and a control story. Participants’ stronger feelings of identification with the protagonist partially explained these effects of the intentional environmentalist narrative. Results highlight that narrating intentional, rather than unintentional, pro-environmental action can enhance readers’ climate policy support and intentions to perform pro-environmental action. Therefore, the intentions driving pro-environmental action may have implications for the extent to which observes identify with the actor and take pro-environmental action themselves.

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Moderating spillover: Focusing on personal sustainable behavior rarely hinders and can boost climate policy support

Cited by 28 publications

References 27 publications

Does personal climate change mitigation behavior influence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States

Does personal climate change mitigation behavior influence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States

Scaling Up Change: A Critical Review and Practical Guide to Harnessing Social Norms for Climate Action

Stories of intentional action mobilise climate policy support and action intentions

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