Discovering the psychological building blocks underlying climate action—a longitudinal study of real-world activism

Abstract

We are in a climate emergency. Because governments are reacting too slowly, grassroots collective action is key. Understanding the psychological factors underpinning engagement can facilitate the growth of such collective action. Yet, previous research in psychology rarely provided causal evidence for which factors trigger action, lacked focus on the climate crisis, was mostly self-reported behaviour or intentions rather than objective measures, and was mostly cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. Here we conducted a longitudinal study on the effectiveness of a 12-week video intervention designed to increase psychological predictors of collective action. The intervention boosted affective engagement, collective efficacy, and self-efficacy, but did not increase observed attendance of activism events. Interviews suggested that Zoom fatigue and the online study design undercut the social interaction participants wanted in order to join events. However, a smaller in-person replication did not increase activism either. Debriefings suggested that the replication participants were primarily motivated by payment and lacked time or resources for more engagement. These results highlight the crucial importance of going beyond measures of self-reported attitudes or intentions to objectively measuring activism behaviours and showing the difficulty of fostering event attendance.

Youth Knowledge and Perceptions of Climate Mitigation

“…That said, some studies suggest that better knowledge is associated with lower levels of climate scepticism and stronger pro-environmental attitudes (Hornsey et al, 2016;Izadpanahi et al, 2017). Experiments show that receiving factual informational about climate change can increase climate concern (Joslyn and Demnitz, 2021;Ranney and Clark, 2016), but longitudinal studies show that it has limited effects on behaviour (Castiglione et al, 2022).…”

Rethinking academia in a time of climate crisis

“…After all, who can refuse their Head of Department’s requests for a report on their outputs and impacts, which, if unsatisfactory, will result in the department’s budget being cut? We argue that our ability to resist the forces of metric fixation, competition, and commercialization is impeded by the same barriers that impede climate action: overwork, time poverty, inertia, and the internalization of unhelpful norms ( Castiglione et al, 2022 ; Giurge et al, 2020 ; Yarkoni, 2018 ). Many of us are simply too bogged down in busyness and burgeoning bureaucracy to push back on metric fixation in the first place.…”

Understanding and Preventing Climate Breakdown: A Guide for Social and Behavioral Scientists

“…A key question of our time is how we can overcome these and other barriers to create a true mass movement that can push entrenched power to act commensurate with the threat ahead. This is understudied: in psychology, there exist not even a handful of studies that investigate how and what makes people engage in collective action and which measure actual rather than self-reported behavior (cf., Castiglione et al, 2022). 14 Given what is at stake, this area of research deserves vastly more attention.…”