Positive messages from trusted voices can play a key role in encouraging people to adopt more climate-friendly behaviours, according to a new study led by the University of Bath.
According to the study, Social influence shapes climate attitudes and action, which was published in Nature Climate Change, while people are ‘notoriously resistant’ to changing their behaviour to address climate change, the right combination of messenger, audience, mode of influence and behavioural domain can help shift their perspective.
“Social norms – what we see and hear from others – are powerful, silent signals that profoundly shape our behaviour,” commented Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, researcher in the Department of Psychology at Bath, and director of CAST, a collaboration between the University of Bath, the University of Manchester, the University of East Anglia and Cardiff University, as well as the charity Climate Outreach. “In this paper, we show how to unlock the power of norms to accelerate action on climate change.”
The messenger
According to the study, trusted voices can include celebrities, healthcare professionals, politicians, religious leaders, business owners, neighbours, family members and friends, as well as organisations such as governments and businesses.
‘The effectiveness of a messenger depends on their trustworthiness, credibility and relevance to the audience,’ the study noted.
The audience
The audience is typically shaped by factors including age, values, identity, political views and income, with the researchers emphasising that audiences should be viewed as active participants, with two-way engagement often proving more effective than one-way communication.
The mode of influence
This examines how influence occurs, with climate messaging delivered through conversations, traditional and social media, role models, public campaigns and institutional actions. As the researchers put it, establishing social norms is particularly important, as people often look to others when deciding what behaviours are socially acceptable.
The behavioural domain
This focuses on the behaviours being targeted, such as transport use, diet and energy use. Certain actions are more susceptible to social influence than others, the researchers state, with behaviours that are ‘highly visible’ or where the ‘best option is uncertain’ tending to be more susceptible to social influence.
“While there is widespread public concern about the effects of climate change, the changes that are needed to reduce its worst impacts are not happening quickly enough,” commented CAST member Dr Sam Hampton, from the Department of Psychology at Bath.
“Green choices and lifestyles need to become mainstream. To achieve this, we need to use the influence of different people and lean on social norms to cultivate environmentally friendly behaviours.” Read more here.
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