Misperceived social norms and willingness to act against climate change

Peter Andre, Teodora Boneva, Felix Chopra and Armin Falk

No 414, SAFE Working Paper Series from Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE

Abstract: We document the individual willingness to act against climate change and study the role of social norms in a large sample of US adults. Individual beliefs about social norms positively predict pro-climate donations, comparable in strength to universal moral values and economic preferences such as patience and reciprocity. However, we document systematic misperceptions of social norms. Respondents vastly underestimate the prevalence of climate-friendly behaviors and norms. Correcting these misperceptions in an experiment causally raises individual willingness to act against climate change as well as individual support for climate policies. The effects are strongest for individuals who are skeptical about the existence and threat of global warming.

Keywords: Climate change; climate behavior; climate policies; social norms; misperception; beliefs; economic preferences; moral values; survey experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D64 D83 D91 Q51 Q54 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cbe, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/284397/1/1882372891.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Misperceived Social Norms and Willingness to Act Against Climate Change (2024)
Working Paper: Misperceived Social Norms and Willingness to Act Against Climate Change (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:safewp:284397

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4740469

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