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

Madalina Vlasceanu; Kimberly C Doell; Joseph B Bak-Coleman; Boryana Todorova; Michael M Berkebile-Weinberg; Samantha J Grayson; Yash Patel; Danielle Goldwert; Yifei Pei; Alek Chakroff; Ekaterina Pronizius; Karlijn L van den Broek; Denisa Vlasceanu; Sara Constantino; Michael J Morais; Philipp Schumann; Steve Rathje; Ke Fang; Salvatore Maria Aglioti; Mark Alfano; Andy J Alvarado-Yepez; Angélica Andersen; Frederik Anseel; Matthew A J Apps; Chillar Asadli; Fonda Jane Awuor; Flavio Azevedo; Piero Basaglia; Jocelyn J Bélanger; Sebastian Berger; Paul Bertin; Michal Bialek; Olga Bialobrzeska; Michelle Blaya-Burgo; Daniëlle N M Bleize; Simen Bø; Lea Boecker; Paulo S Boggio; Sylvie Borau; Björn Bos; Ayoub Bouguettaya; Markus Brauer; Cameron Brick; Tymofii Brik; Roman Briker; Tobias Brosch; Ondrej Buchel; Daniel Buonauro; Radhika Butalia; Héctor Carvacho; Et al.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

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

Madalina Vlasceanu, Kimberly C Doell, Joseph B Bak-Coleman, Boryana Todorova, Michael M Berkebile-Weinberg, Samantha J Grayson, Yash Patel, Danielle Goldwert, Yifei Pei, Alek Chakroff, Ekaterina Pronizius, Karlijn L van den Broek, Denisa Vlasceanu, Sara Constantino, Michael J Morais, Philipp Schumann, Steve Rathje, Ke Fang, Salvatore Maria Aglioti, Mark AlfanoAndy J Alvarado-Yepez, Angélica Andersen, Frederik Anseel, Matthew A J Apps, Chillar Asadli, Fonda Jane Awuor, Flavio Azevedo, Piero Basaglia, Jocelyn J Bélanger, Sebastian Berger, Paul Bertin, Michal Bialek, Olga Bialobrzeska, Michelle Blaya-Burgo, Daniëlle N M Bleize, Simen Bø, Lea Boecker, Paulo S Boggio, Sylvie Borau, Björn Bos, Ayoub Bouguettaya, Markus Brauer, Cameron Brick, Tymofii Brik, Roman Briker, Tobias Brosch, Ondrej Buchel, Daniel Buonauro, Radhika Butalia, Héctor Carvacho, Et al.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › 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
Article number	eadj5778
Journal	Science advances
Volume	10
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj5778
Publication status	Published - 7 Feb 2024

Keywords

Humans
Climate Change
Intention
Policy
Behavioral Sciences

Access to Document

10.1126/sciadv.adj5778Licence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

Vlasceanu, M., Doell, K. C., Bak-Coleman, J. B., Todorova, B., Berkebile-Weinberg, M. M., Grayson, S. J., Patel, Y., Goldwert, D., Pei, Y., Chakroff, A., Pronizius, E., van den Broek, K. L., Vlasceanu, D., Constantino, S., Morais, M. J., Schumann, P., Rathje, S., Fang, K., Aglioti, S. M., ... Et al. (2024). Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries. Science advances, 10(6), Article eadj5778. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

@article{cb6094a767124cb2be322c08b236d750,

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 = "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 Michal Bialek 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 H{\'e}ctor Carvacho and {Et al.}",

note = "Data and materials availability: The data can be downloaded from https://zenodo.org/records/10345806. All data and code can also be found on GitHub (https://github.com/josephbb/ManyLabsClimate and https://github.com/mvlasceanu/ClimateTournament). The interventions (in each language) can be accessed as qsf files (to be imported in Qualtrics): https://osf.io/ytf89/files/osfstorage/6454f8d771778511d9b0f48f. A web tool for rapidly assessing which intervention is most likely to be effective at increasing climate change beliefs, policy support, information sharing, and tree-planting efforts, for any subsample target of interest, varying along demographics such as nationality, political ideology, age, gender, education, or income level can be found at https://climate-interventions.shinyapps.io/climate-interventions/. All other data needed to evaluate the conclusions in this paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.",

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Vlasceanu, M, Doell, KC, Bak-Coleman, JB, Todorova, B, Berkebile-Weinberg, MM, Grayson, SJ, Patel, Y, Goldwert, D, Pei, Y, Chakroff, A, Pronizius, E, van den Broek, KL, Vlasceanu, D, Constantino, S, Morais, MJ, Schumann, P, Rathje, S, Fang, K, Aglioti, SM, Alfano, M, Alvarado-Yepez, AJ, Andersen, A, Anseel, F, Apps, MAJ, Asadli, C, Awuor, FJ, Azevedo, F, Basaglia, P, Bélanger, JJ, Berger, S, Bertin, P, Bialek, M, Bialobrzeska, O, Blaya-Burgo, M, Bleize, DNM, Bø, S, Boecker, L, Boggio, PS, Borau, S, Bos, B, Bouguettaya, A, Brauer, M, Brick, C, Brik, T, Briker, R, Brosch, T, Buchel, O, Buonauro, D, Butalia, R, Carvacho, H & Et al. 2024, 'Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries', Science advances, vol. 10, no. 6, eadj5778. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

TY - JOUR

T1 - Addressing climate change with behavioral science

T2 - A global intervention tournament in 63 countries

AU - Vlasceanu, Madalina

AU - Doell, Kimberly C

AU - Bak-Coleman, Joseph B

AU - Todorova, Boryana

AU - Berkebile-Weinberg, Michael M

AU - Grayson, Samantha J

AU - Patel, Yash

AU - Goldwert, Danielle

AU - Pei, Yifei

AU - Chakroff, Alek

AU - Pronizius, Ekaterina

AU - van den Broek, Karlijn L

AU - Vlasceanu, Denisa

AU - Constantino, Sara

AU - Morais, Michael J

AU - Schumann, Philipp

AU - Rathje, Steve

AU - Fang, Ke

AU - Aglioti, Salvatore Maria

AU - Alfano, Mark

AU - Alvarado-Yepez, Andy J

AU - Andersen, Angélica

AU - Anseel, Frederik

AU - Apps, Matthew A J

AU - Asadli, Chillar

AU - Awuor, Fonda Jane

AU - Azevedo, Flavio

AU - Basaglia, Piero

AU - Bélanger, Jocelyn J

AU - Berger, Sebastian

AU - Bertin, Paul

AU - Bialek, Michal

AU - Bialobrzeska, Olga

AU - Blaya-Burgo, Michelle

AU - Bleize, Daniëlle N M

AU - Bø, Simen

AU - Boecker, Lea

AU - Boggio, Paulo S

AU - Borau, Sylvie

AU - Bos, Björn

AU - Bouguettaya, Ayoub

AU - Brauer, Markus

AU - Brick, Cameron

AU - Brik, Tymofii

AU - Briker, Roman

AU - Brosch, Tobias

AU - Buchel, Ondrej

AU - Buonauro, Daniel

AU - Butalia, Radhika

AU - Carvacho, Héctor

AU - Et al.

N1 - Data and materials availability: The data can be downloaded from https://zenodo.org/records/10345806. All data and code can also be found on GitHub (https://github.com/josephbb/ManyLabsClimate and https://github.com/mvlasceanu/ClimateTournament). The interventions (in each language) can be accessed as qsf files (to be imported in Qualtrics): https://osf.io/ytf89/files/osfstorage/6454f8d771778511d9b0f48f. A web tool for rapidly assessing which intervention is most likely to be effective at increasing climate change beliefs, policy support, information sharing, and tree-planting efforts, for any subsample target of interest, varying along demographics such as nationality, political ideology, age, gender, education, or income level can be found at https://climate-interventions.shinyapps.io/climate-interventions/. All other data needed to evaluate the conclusions in this paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.

PY - 2024/2/7

Y1 - 2024/2/7

N2 - 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.

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

U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

DO - 10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

M3 - Article

SN - 2375-2548

VL - 10

JO - Science advances

JF - Science advances

IS - 6

M1 - eadj5778

ER -