Access to Environmental Cognitive Alternatives Predicts Pro-Environmental Activist Behavior

Abstract

We extend social identity models of pro-environmental collective action by expanding on the plausible role of access to cognitive alternatives to the environmental status quo (i.e., the ability of people to imagine what a sustainable relationship with nature would look like). Using a representative Canadian survey on age, gender, and ethnicity (N = 1029) we evaluate the associations between access to environmental cognitive alternatives and politicized environmental identity and willingness to engage in pro-environmental activist behavior. Additionally, we extend research using exclusively self-reported outcomes by giving participants the opportunity to write and sign a pro-environmental letter to the Canadian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. Our results suggest that envisioning specific ways in which the status quo can be changed is associated with stronger politicized environmental identity, greater willingness to engage in pro-environmental activist behavior, and increased likelihood of writing and signing a pro-environmental letter to the Canadian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. All methods and analyses follow our preregistration (https://osf.io/b56ry) and all materials and data are openly available (https://osf.io/24yeq/).