How information about likely accomplishments affects willingness to sacrifice to reduce global warming

Robert E O'Connor, Richard J Bord and Ann Fisher

Journal of Risk Research, 1998, vol. 1, issue 3, 197-207

Abstract: Does information on what a proposed tax or regulation is likely to accomplish affect willingness to sacrifice? The economists' perspective is that having information about what a sacrifice is 'buying' is likely to influence choices. A different perspective is that vote choices in referenda are more of a symbolic exercise, with voters adopting a heuristic toward an issue domain and the heuristic guiding the vote. This research examines the impact of providing information about what sacrifices will accomplish in the context of an issue that is poorly understood: climate change. A survey that provides information to half the sample, but not to the other half shows that providing information about what a policy action is likely to achieve does affect people's support for the policy. The percentage supporting a referendum increases (holding constant the 'price') when information is provided that appears to imply a 'substantial' achievement. At least for the sacrifices identified, information about 'small' achievements either leads to no change or actually decreases willingness to sacrifice. Logistic models of determinants of willingness to sacrifice offer additional support for the contention that people differentiate rather than decide based upon a general environmental heuristic. Across the different referenda, different factors predict peoples' choices.

Date: 1998
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DOI: 10.1080/136698798377123

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