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Climate change communicators’ carbon footprints affect their audience’s policy support

Author

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  • Shahzeen Z. Attari

    (Indiana University Bloomington)

  • David H. Krantz

    (Columbia University)

  • Elke U. Weber

    (Princeton University)

Abstract

Global warming is caused mainly by CO2 emission from burning fossil fuels and is beginning to have large negative impacts on human well-being and ecosystems (IPCC 2014; IPCC 2018). Policies that mitigate CO2 emissions will require public support. Here, we examine how support for several possible decarbonization policies varies as a function of the personal carbon footprint of a researcher who advocates the policy. We find that people are more likely to support policies if the advocate for these policies has a low carbon footprint. Replicating our prior work, we find that the communicators’ carbon footprint massively affect their credibility and intentions of their audience to conserve energy (Attari, Krantz and Weber 2016). Our new finding is that their carbon footprint also affects audience support for public policies advocated by the communicator. In a second study, we show that the negative effects of a large carbon footprint on credibility are greatly reduced if the communicator reforms their behavior by reducing their personal carbon footprints. The implications of these results are stark: effective communication of climate science and advocacy of both individual behavior change and public policy interventions are greatly helped when advocates lead the way by reducing their own carbon footprint.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahzeen Z. Attari & David H. Krantz & Elke U. Weber, 2019. "Climate change communicators’ carbon footprints affect their audience’s policy support," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 529-545, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:154:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s10584-019-02463-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-019-02463-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gordon T. Kraft-Todd & Bryan Bollinger & Kenneth Gillingham & Stefan Lamp & David G. Rand, 2018. "Credibility-enhancing displays promote the provision of non-normative public goods," Nature, Nature, vol. 563(7730), pages 245-248, November.
    2. Shahzeen Z. Attari & David H. Krantz & Elke U. Weber, 2016. "Statements about climate researchers’ carbon footprints affect their credibility and the impact of their advice," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 325-338, September.
    3. Adam Seth Levine & Reuben Kline, 2017. "A new approach for evaluating climate change communication," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 301-309, May.
    4. Susan Clayton & Patrick Devine-Wright & Paul C. Stern & Lorraine Whitmarsh & Amanda Carrico & Linda Steg & Janet Swim & Mirilia Bonnes, 2015. "Psychological research and global climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(7), pages 640-646, July.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Syalie Liu & Sacha Altay & Hugo Mercier, 2022. "Being green or being nice? People are more likely to share nicer but potentially less impactful green messages," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 1-14, September.
    3. Chen, Fu & Zhang, Wanyue & Chen, Run & Jiang, Feifei & Ma, Jing & Zhu, Xinhua, 2024. "Adapting carbon neutrality: Tailoring advanced emission strategies for developing countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C).
    4. Özcureci Berker & Tuğrul Tuğba, 2023. "The Interplay Between Risk Framing, Attitude toward Policy, Negative Affect and Hard Policy Support," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 122-128, July.
    5. Olugbemi Mosunmola Aroke & Behzad Esmaeili & Sojung Claire Kim, 2021. "Impact of Climate Change on Transportation Infrastructure: Comparing Perception Differences between the US Public and the Department of Transportation (DOT) Professionals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    6. Stijn van Ewijk & Paul Hoekman, 2021. "Emission reduction potentials for academic conference travel," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(3), pages 778-788, June.

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