Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries.
Madalina VlasceanuKimberly C DoellJoseph B Bak-ColemanBoryana TodorovaMichael M Berkebile-WeinbergSamantha J GraysonYash PatelDanielle GoldwertYifei PeiAlek ChakroffEkaterina ProniziusKarlijn L van den BroekDenisa VlasceanuSara M ConstantinoMichael J MoraisPhilipp SchumannSteve RathjeKe FangSalvatore Maria AgliotiMark AlfanoAndy J Alvarado-YepezAngélica AndersenFrederik AnseelMatthew A J AppsChillar AsadliFonda Jane AwuorFlávio AzevedoPiero BasagliaJocelyn J BélangerSebastian BergerPaul BertinMichal BialekOlga BialobrzeskaMichelle Blaya-BurgoDaniëlle N M BleizeSimen BøLea BoeckerPaulo Sergio BoggioSylvie BorauBjörn BosAyoub BouguettayaMarkus BrauerCameron BrickTymofii BrikRoman BrikerTobias BroschOndrej BuchelDaniel BuonauroRadhika ButaliaHéctor CarvachoSarah A E ChamberlainHang-Yee ChanDawn Yi Lin ChowDongil ChungLuca CianNoa Cohen-EickLuis Sebastian Contreras-HuertaDavide ContuVladimir CristeaJo CutlerSilvana D'OttoneJonas De KeersmaeckerSarah DelcourtSylvain DelouveeKathi DielBenjamin D DouglasMoritz A DruppShreya DubeyJānis EkmanisChristian T ElbaekMahmoud Medhat ElsherifIris M EngelhardYannik Andrea EscherTom W EtienneLaura FarageAna Rita FariasStefan FeuerriegelAndrej FindorLucia FreiraMalte FrieseNeil Philip GainsAlbina GallyamovaSandra J GeigerOliver GenschowBiljana GjoneskaTheofilos GkinopoulosBeth GoldbergAmit GoldenbergSarah GradidgeSimone GrassiniKurt GraySonja GrelleSiobhán M GriffinLusine GrigoryanAni GrigoryanGrigoryev DmitryJune GruberJohnrev GuilaranBritt HadarUlf J J HahnelEran HalperinAnnelie J HarveyChristian A P HaugestadAleksandra M HermanHal E HershfieldToshiyuki HimichiDonald W HineWilhelm HofmannLauren C HoweEnma T Huaman-ChulluncuyGuanxiong HuangTatsunori IshiiAyahito ItoFanli JiaJohn T JostVeljko JovanovićDominika JurgielOndřej KáchaReeta KankaanpääJaroslaw KantorowiczElena Kantorowicz-ReznichenkoKeren Kaplan MintzIlker KayaOzgur KayaNarine KhachatryanAnna KlasColin KleinChristian A KlöcknerLina KoppelAlexandra I KosachenkoEmily J KotheRuth KrebsAmy R KroschAndre P M KrouwelYara KyrychenkoMaria LagomarsinoClaus LammFlorian LangeJooa Julia LeeJeffrey LeesTak Yan LeungNeil LevyPatricia L LockwoodChiara LongoniAlberto López OrtegaDavid D LoschelderJackson G LuYu LuoJoseph LuombaAnnika E LutzJohann M MajerEzra MarkowitzAbigail A MarshKaren Louise MascarenhasBwambale MbilingiWinfred MbunguCillian McHughMarijn Hendrika Catharina MeijersHugo MercierFenant Laurent MhagamaKaterina MichalakisNace MikusSarah MillironPanagiotis MitkidisFredy S Monge-RodríguezYouri L MoraDavid MoreauKosuke MotokiManuel MoyanoMathilde MusJoaquin NavajasTam Luong NguyenDung Minh NguyenTrieu NguyenLaura NiemiSari R R NijssenGustav NilsonneJonas P NitschkeLaila NockurRitah OkuraSezin ÖnerAsil Ali ÖzdoğruHelena PalumboCostas PanagopoulosMaria Serena PanasitiPhilip PärnametsMariola Paruzel-CzachuraYuri G PavlovCésar Payán-GómezAdam R PearsonLeonor Pereira da CostaHannes M PetrowskyStefan PfattheicherNhat Tan PhamVladimir PonizovskiyClara PretusGabriel Gaudencio RêgoRitsaart ReimannShawn A RhoadsJulián C Riaño-MorenoIsabell RichterJan Philipp RöerJahred Rosa-SullivanRobert Malcolm RossAnandita SabherwalToshiki SaitoOriane SarrasinNicolas SayKatharina SchmidMichael T SchmittPhilipp SchoeneggerChristin ScholzMariah G SchugStefan SchulreichGanga ShreedharEric ShumanSmadar SivanHallgeir SjåstadMeikel SolimanKatia SoudTobia SpampattiGregg SparkmanOgnen SpasovskiSamantha K StanleyJessica A SternNoel StrahmYasushi SukoSunhae SulStylianos SyropoulosNeil C TaylorElisa TedaldiGustav TinghögLuu Duc Toan HuynhGiovanni Antonio TravaglinoManos Tsakirisİlayda TüterMichael TyralaÖzden Melis UluğArkadiusz UrbanekDanila ValkoSander van der LindenKevin van SchieAart van StekelenburgEdmunds VanagsDaniel VästfjällStepan VeselyJáchym VintrMarek A VrankaPatrick Otuo WangucheRobb WillerAdrian Dominik WojcikRachel XuAnjali YadavMagdalena ZawiszaXian ZhaoJiaying ZhaoDawid ŻukJay Joseph Van BavelPublished in: Science advances (2024)
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.