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.

Keywords: activism; climate change; collective action; pro-environmental behaviour; prosocial behaviour.

Figure 1.

Experimental Design. Note. (a) Screening for beliefs in anthropogenic climate change and attendance to climate activism events. (b) Six-week baseline period of receiving climate activism event bulletins every week. Attendance was objectively recorded. (c) Baseline survey. (d) Six-week intervention period with 20-minute videos, twice per week, and the event bulletins. (e) After three months, follow-up survey of the same psychological factors and activism behaviors. (f) Some participants completed a semi-structured interview.

Figure 2.

Change in three psychological factors after the 12-video intervention. Note. The boxes include the second and third quartiles divided by the median. The upper whiskers extend to the maximum value within 1.5 times the interquartile range over the 75th percentile, and the lower whiskers to the minimum within 1.5 times the interquartile range under the 25th percentile.