The Role of Trust, Confidence and Expert Credibility for Climate Change Mitigation

Current consumption patterns are a strong accelerator of climate change. Therefore, switching to low-carbon lifestyles would be an effective way for individuals to mitigate climate change. However, grasping the manifold risks of climate change and evaluating related behavioural decisions can be a cognitively demanding task, especially when knowledge is limited or information is not readily available. When faced with such uncertainty, individuals often rely on experts in their decision-making process. In fact, trusting experts, such as climate scientists, can help us to reduce the cognitive complexity involved in behavioural decisions and guide decision-making. Against this backdrop, the aims of this dissertation are to (1) quantify the relationship between the public’s trust in scientists and the uptake of pro-environmental behaviours, (2) examine how climate scientists’ political engagement, such as advocacy, affects their credibility and (3) investigate how confidence in technology affects willingness to engage in pro-environmental behaviours

Climate strikes Switzerland

Accepted, PLOS ONE 202

To strike or not to strike? an investigation of the determinants of strike participation at the Fridays for Future climate strikes in Switzerland

The Fridays for Future strikes involve students striking for increased action on climate change, and this movement has spread to 185 countries and received widespread media attention. This exploratory study investigates motives for participating or not in the climate strikes and future participation among students in Switzerland. In a sample of N = 638 university students, we found that trust in climate scientists, low trust in governments, response efficacy, protest enjoyment and the perceived success of the strikes predicted participation. Contrary to statements in the public media but consistent with the literature, students who participated in the climate strikes reported consuming less meat, flying less and taking more steps to compensate the CO2 emissions from flights compared to students who did not participate. We discuss how the insights from this study help reveal the determinants of youth collective action on climate change.ISSN:1932-620

The influence of scarcity perception on people's pro-environmental behavior and their readiness to accept new sustainable technologies

Experts worldwide point to the challenges our world is facing (e.g., land degradation, resource scarcity, global warming) as described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Many studies have analyzed how to cope with these challenges. Aside from promoting pro-environmental behaviors, it was proposed that technological innovations might provide the potential to cope with and compensate for natural resource scarcity. We conducted an online survey (N = 404) investigating how people's scarcity perception is related to their willingness to adopt pro-environmental behaviors and their openness to new sustainable technologies. Regression analyses demonstrate that the anticipated future unavailability of resources is more crucial for predicting pro-environmental behavior than the perceived current resource availability. The expected reduced future availability of natural resources goes along with increased openness to sustainable energy (renergy = −0.32) and food technologies (rfood = −0.22). Moreover, a t-test provides evidence for the causal influence of scarcity perception by showing that pro-environmental behavior was higher following our scarcity salience manipulation (Cohen's d = 0.27). Further bootstrapping analyses showed that the salience affected individuals' technology openness via pro-environmental behavior. Also, pro-environmental behavior and openness to sustainable food and energy technologies were amplified when people believed that fewer resources will be available due to an increased concern about scarcity.ISSN:0921-800

Knowledge, perceived potential and trust as determinants of low- and high-impact pro-environmental behaviours

Changes in household consumption patterns to low-carbon alternatives are needed to decrease global greenhouse gas emissions. Accurate perceptions about the mitigation potential of different behaviours can help consumers to reduce their emissions. With a sample of N = 547 Swiss participants, we analysed to what extent participants correctly judged the mitigation potential of different behaviours. We found that the mitigation potential of certain behaviours, such as switching to a sustainable diet, was underestimated, while the mitigation potential of other behaviours, such as installing efficient light bulbs, was overestimated. Participants correctly judged reducing car use and avoiding a transatlantic flight to have a strong mitigation potential. By differentiating between low- and high-impact behaviours, we found that higher levels of objective knowledge positively predicted intentions to engage in high-impact mitigation behaviours and negatively predicted intentions to engage in low-impact mitigation behaviours, while higher perceived potential, higher levels of trust in climate scientists and less perceived effort predicted the willingness to engage in both low- and high-impact mitigation behaviours. We conclude with recommendations on how the uptake of high-impact behaviours can be fostered.ISSN:0272-494

Majority of German citizens, US citizens and climate scientists support policy advocacy by climate researchers and expect greater political engagement

Scientists' role in outreach and advocacy has been debated extensively, but empirical evidence on its perceived legitimacy is scarce. We contacted scientists researching climate change to investigate scientists' engagement levels, as well as expectations regarding political and public engagement. We then compared how scientists (N = 1107) and German and US citizens (N = 884) view scientists' engagement and how scientists' advocacy affects their credibility. We find that perceptions differ across countries, with scientists perceiving more strongly than the public that scientists should politically and publicly engage. However, the public agrees that scientists should engage, and that they should increase these efforts. The majority of citizens agrees that scientists should advocate for climate-related policies and work closely with policymakers but refrain from endorsing climate protests. Further, openly supporting climate policies does not adversely affect scientists' perceived trustworthiness or honesty, while it negatively affects perceptions of scientists' objectivity. Our study provides empirical evidence that can help climate change researchers to better understand the public's demand for, and perceived legitimacy of, different engagement activities.ISSN:1748-9326ISSN:1748-931

Drop some money! The influence of income and subjective financial scarcity on pro-environmental behaviour

Numerous studies investigated how people's willingness to engage in pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) is shaped by their financial circumstances. Yet, no clear pattern can be found in the literature: research demonstrates that people with higher incomes have higher carbon footprints, while other findings show that people with more perceived financial resources indicate more engagement in PEBs. We propose to differentiate between objective income and the subjective feeling of financial scarcity, because less income does not necessarily go together with feelings of financial scarcity and vice versa. We investigated if both income and subjective financial scarcity – though being negatively related in the first place – have a negative influence on the willingness to engage in PEBs. The data of a pilot study (n = 199) provides first evidence that willingness for PEB was indeed lower for people with higher incomes and simultaneously also for those reporting more subjective financial scarcity. Moreover, the analyses of our studies revealed that the negative relation between income and willingness for PEB was mediated by (higher) perceived future availability of natural resources (Study 1 n₁ = 314 & Study 2 n₂ = 393). Further findings showed that subjective financial scarcity was going along with less PEB due to an increased perceived effort/cost associated with PEB. Finally, Study 3 (n₃ = 950) revealed that both income and subjective financial scarcity were also related to a reduced acceptance of shifting activities that consume electric energy. We conclude that researchers need to consider both individuals’ objective and subjective financial situation for determining and coping with the specific barriers that prevent people from engaging in PEB.ISSN:0272-494