A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

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




AuthorsVlasceanu, 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.; Alfano, M.; Alvarado-Yepez, A. J.; Andersen, A.; Anseel, F.; Apps, M. A. J.; Asadli, C.; Awuor, F. J.; Azevedo, F.; Basaglia, P.; Bélanger, J. J.; Berger, S.; Bertin, P.; Białek, M.; Bialobrzeska, O.; Blaya-Burgo, M.; Bleize, D. N. M.; Bø, S.; Boecker, L.; Boggio, P. S.; Borau, S.; Bos, B.; Bouguettaya, A.; Brauer, M.; Brick, C.; Brik, T.; Briker, R.; Brosch, T.; Buchel, O.; Buonauro, D.; Butalia, R.; Carvacho, H.; Chamberlain, S. A. E.; Chan, H. Y.; Chow, D.; Chung, D.; Cian, L.; Cohen-Eick, N.; Contreras-Huerta, L. S.; Contu, D.; Cristea, V.; Cutler, J.; D'Ottone, S.; De Keersmaecker, J.; Delcourt, S.; Delouvée, S.; Diel, K.; Douglas, B. D.; Drupp, M. A.; Dubey, S.; Ekmanis, J.; Elbaek, C. T.; Elsherif, M.; Engelhard, I. M.; Escher, Y. A.; Etienne, T. W.; Farage, L.; Farias, A. R.; Feuerriegel, S.; Findor, A.; Freira, L.; Friese, M.; Gains, N. P.; Gallyamova, A.; Geiger, S. J.; Genschow, O.; Gjoneska, B.; Gkinopoulos, T.; Goldberg, B.; Goldenberg, A.; Gradidge, S.; Grassini, S.; Gray, K.; Grelle, S.; Griffin, S. M.; Grigoryan, L.; Grigoryan, A.; Grigoryev, D.; Gruber, J.; Guilaran, J.; Hadar, B.; Hahnel, U. J. J.; Halperin, E.; Harvey, A. J.; Haugestad, C. A. P.; Herman, A. M.; Hershfield, H. E.; Himichi, T.; Hine, D. W.; Hofmann, W.; Howe, L.; Huaman-Chulluncuy, E. T.; Huang, G.; Ishii, T.; Ito, A.; Jia, F.; Jost, J. T.; Jovanović, V.; Jurgiel, D.; Kácha, O.; Kankaanpää, R.; Kantorowicz, J.; Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, E.; Kaplan Mintz, K.; Kaya, I.; Kaya, O.; Khachatryan, N.; Klas, A.; Klein, C.; Klockner, C. A.; Koppel, L.; Kosachenko, A. I.; Kothe, E. J.; Krebs, R.; Krosch, A. R.; Krouwel, A. P. M.; Kyrychenko, Y.; Lagomarsino, M.; Lamm, C.; Lange, F.; Lee Cunningham, J.; Lees, J.; Leung, T. Y.; Levy, N.; Lockwood, P. L.; Longoni, C.; López Ortega, A.; Loschelder, D.D.; Lu, J. G.; Luo, Y.; Luomba, J.; Lutz, A. E.; Majer, J. M.; Markowitz, E.; Marsh, A. A.; Mascarenhas, K. L.; Mbilingi, B.; Mbungu, W.; McHugh, C.; Meijers, M. H. C.; Mercier, H.; Mhagama, F. L.; Michalakis, K.; Mikus, N.; Milliron, S.; Mitkidis, P.; Monge-Rodríguez, F. S.; Mora, Y. L.; Moreau, D.; Motoki, K.; Moyano, M.; Mus, M.; Navajas, J.; Nguyen, T. L.; Nguyen, D. M.; Nguyen, T.; Niemi, L.; Nijssen, S. R. R.; Nilsonne, G.; Nitschke, J. P.; Nockur, L.; Okura, R.; Öner, S.; Özdoğru, A. A.; Palumbo, H.; Panagopoulos, C.; Panasiti, M. S.; Pärnamets, P.; Paruzel-Czachura, M.; Pavlov, Y. G.; Payán-Gómez, C.; Pearson, A. R.; Pereira da Costa, L.; Petrowsky, H. M.; Pfattheicher, S.; Pham, N. T.; Ponizovskiy, V.; Pretus, C.; Rêgo, G. G.; Reimann, R.; Rhoads, S. A.; Riano-Moreno, J.; Richter, I.; Röer, J. P.; Rosa-Sullivan, J.; Ross, R. M.; Sabherwal, A.; Saito, T.; Sarrasin, O.; Say, N.; Schmid, K.; Schmitt, M. T.; Schoenegger, P.; Scholz, C.; Schug, M. G.; Schulreich, S.; Shreedhar, G.; Shuman, E.; Sivan, S.; Sjåstad, H.; Soliman, M.; Soud, K.; Spampatti, T.; Sparkman, G.; Spasovski, O.; Stanley, S. K.; Stern, J. A.; Strahm, N.; Suko, Y.; Sul, S.; Syropoulos, S.; Taylor, N. C.; Tedaldi, E.; Tinghög, G.; Huynh, L. D. T.; Travaglino, G. A.; Tsakiris, M.; Tüter, İ.; Tyrala, M.; Uluğ, Ö. M.; Urbanek, A.; Valko, D.; van der Linden, S.; van Schie, K.; van Stekelenburg, A.; Vanags, E.; Västfjäll, D.; Vesely, S.; Vintr, J.; Vranka, M.; Wanguche, P. O.; Willer, R.; Wojcik, A. D.; Xu, R.; Yadav, A.; Zawisza, M.; Zhao, X.; Zhao, J.; Żuk, D.; Van Bavel, J. J.

PublisherAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science

Publication year2024

Journal: Science Advances

Journal name in sourceScience advances

Journal acronymSci Adv

Volume10

Issue6

ISSN2375-2548

eISSN2375-2548

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

Publication's open availability at the time of reportingOpen Access

Publication channel's open availability Open Access publication channel

Web address https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/387453049

Self-archived copy's licenceCC BY

Self-archived copy's versionPublisher`s PDF


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.

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