In her political guidelines outlining the European Green Deal, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen stated: ‘I have been inspired by the passion, conviction and energy of the millions of our young people making their voice heard on our streets and in our hearts. They are standing up for their future and it is our generational duty to deliver for them’. In 2019, civil society groups led by youth organisations, such as the Fridays for Future movement, created a new momentum for demanding global climate action: up to 6 million people worldwide participated in the global climate strike that September. These efforts therefore tangibly inspired policy outcomes on European level - that is, the shaping of the European Green Deal.
As a student of psychology and public policy, I was fascinated by the psychological dimension of climate change: how do we feel, think about, and cope with something as threatening as climate change? And the million-dollar-question: how do we change our behavior to mitigate our impact?
An easy way out of it is simply not to think about it: to avoid the topic of climate change, or even deny that it is happening, which comes with the convenient bonus outcome of not needing to change our habits because of it. These are some examples of what I soon found out to be greatly shaping our thoughts, feelings and action on climate change, or rather, the lack of it: the psychological barriers to climate change mitigation, which take various shapes and forms.
For my Masters thesis, I therefore set out to understand the psychological barriers to climate change engagement and how they can be overcome. Could membership in an environmental organisation ‘reduce’ these psychological barriers and lead to individual behavior change?
Psychological barriers to climate action From your personal experience, you may know how hard it is to change your behaviour and habits. While many people today are conscious of the negative environmental impacts of certain behaviors and hold pro-environmental attitudes, behaviour is not always in line with these attitudes – a phenomenon known as the attitude-behaviour gap. Behaviour change in the context of climate change and sustainability is particularly challenging, as it can be constrained by a variety of psychological barriers. These barriers are related to the way in which our thoughts about climate change are limited by our thinking patterns, our worldviews and ideologies, and our social nature which is governed by social norms, to name a few examples. A psychologically intricate example of the way in which psychological barriers limit behaviour is the rebound effect, in which we reward ourselves for being sustainable in one domain with being unsustainable in another, such as driving more frequently in a fuel-efficient car. Researchers argue that the attitude-behaviour gap is ‘narrowed’ if psychological barriers are considered, thereby increasing the relation between attitudes and behaviors.
Environmental organisations: overcoming barriers To answer the questions above, I conducted an online questionnaire and focus groups in a rural area in the US state of Washington in the fall of 2019.
The online survey was based on this scale, and among other questions, respondents were prompted to choose an environmentally significant behavior they thought they could improve on, such as eating less meat, taking public transportation or recycling. Keeping the selected behavior in mind, respondents were then asked to indicate their level of agreement with statements that reflected the various psychological barriers. An example for such a statement is 'my individual contribution is small when it comes to saving the earth, so there is no point in me making this change', which reflects the psychological barrier perceived behavioral control over the outcome of climate change. A total of 560 people, representing 67 different countries, completed the survey, with 251 respondents involved in climate change related organizations and 309 not involved in such organizations. The results indicate that members of these organisations showed significantly less psychological barriers to taking climate change mitigation actions than uninvolved participants.
The survey thus demonstrates that environmental organisation membership is linked to exhibiting less barriers to change behavior towards sustainability. To understand what mechanisms are involved at group level to overcome psychological barriers, two focus groups were held in Sequim, Washington, with highly involved retirees engaged in different environmental organisations. During these discussions, many of the barriers referred to previously were reflected. However, barriers that were not purely psychological, such as political, economic, and infrastructural barriers, dominated the discussion. The fact that these barriers were more predominantly experienced is likely owing to the political context of the United States, where climate change is a highly polarized topic. At the individual level, the extent to which respondents found their ‘environmental niche’ in which they can most effectively contribute, given their skills and experiences, was an important mechanism. On the group level, the social context of organisations allows for deliberation of ideas, social support and learning, and the setting of standards for sustainable behavior, all of which enable individual behavior change towards sustainability. The social connection fostered during group activities is also an important driver in the continued long-term efforts of changing behaviour.
Conclusion Both the online survey and the focus groups show that the group setting environmental organisations provide, with its social resources and possibilities for learning and connection, are important for overcoming psychological barriers that limit climate action. From a policy perspective, this implies that strengthening and integrating civil society groups in environmental policy making to advance policy outcomes should be considered: last summer, a citizens climate assembly in France, for example, successfully pushed for a referendum to enshrine environmental protection in the constitution, which will be held this year.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are personal to the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organisation or employer.
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