IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/riskan/v39y2019i4p805-828.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficacy, Action, and Support for Reducing Climate Change Risks

Author

Listed:
  • Ann Bostrom
  • Adam L. Hayes
  • Katherine M. Crosman

Abstract

A growing body of research demonstrates that believing action to reduce the risks of climate change is both possible (self‐efficacy) and effective (response efficacy) is essential to motivate and sustain risk mitigation efforts. Despite this potentially critical role of efficacy beliefs, measures and their use vary wildly in climate change risk perception and communication research, making it hard to compare and learn from efficacy studies. To address this problem and advance our understanding of efficacy beliefs, this article makes three contributions. First, we present a theoretically motivated approach to measuring climate change mitigation efficacy, in light of diverse proposed, perceived, and previously researched strategies. Second, we test this in two national survey samples (Amazon's Mechanical Turk N = 405, GfK Knowledge Panel N = 1,820), demonstrating largely coherent beliefs by level of action and discrimination between types of efficacy. Four additive efficacy scales emerge: personal self‐efficacy, personal response efficacy, government and collective self‐efficacy, and government and collective response efficacy. Third, we employ the resulting efficacy scales in mediation models to test how well efficacy beliefs predict climate change policy support, controlling for specific knowledge, risk perceptions, and ideology, and allowing for mediation by concern. Concern fully mediates the relatively strong effects of perceived risk on policy support, but only partly mediates efficacy beliefs. Stronger government and collective response efficacy beliefs and personal self‐efficacy beliefs are both directly and indirectly associated with greater support for reducing the risks of climate change, even after controlling for ideology and causal beliefs about climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann Bostrom & Adam L. Hayes & Katherine M. Crosman, 2019. "Efficacy, Action, and Support for Reducing Climate Change Risks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(4), pages 805-828, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:39:y:2019:i:4:p:805-828
    DOI: 10.1111/risa.13210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13210
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/risa.13210?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jing Shi & Vivianne H. M. Visschers & Michael Siegrist & Joseph Arvai, 2016. "Knowledge as a driver of public perceptions about climate change reassessed," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 6(8), pages 759-762, August.
    2. John Horton & David Rand & Richard Zeckhauser, 2011. "The online laboratory: conducting experiments in a real labor market," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(3), pages 399-425, September.
    3. Aaron M. McCright & Riley E. Dunlap, 2013. "Bringing ideology in: the conservative white male effect on worry about environmental problems in the USA," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 211-226, February.
    4. Travis William Reynolds & Ann Bostrom & Daniel Read & M. Granger Morgan, 2010. "Now What Do People Know About Global Climate Change? Survey Studies of Educated Laypeople," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(10), pages 1520-1538, October.
    5. Anna Olofsson & Saman Rashid, 2011. "The White (Male) Effect and Risk Perception: Can Equality Make a Difference?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 1016-1032, June.
    6. Joost Ginkel & Pieter Kroonenberg, 2014. "Using Generalized Procrustes Analysis for Multiple Imputation in Principal Component Analysis," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 31(2), pages 242-269, July.
    7. Jonathon P. Schuldt & Peter K. Enns & Victoria Cavaliere, 2017. "Does the label really matter? Evidence that the US public continues to doubt “global warming” more than “climate change”," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 271-280, July.
    8. Samuel Brody & Himanshu Grover & Arnold Vedlitz, 2012. "Examining the willingness of Americans to alter behaviour to mitigate climate change," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.
    9. King, Gary & Honaker, James & Joseph, Anne & Scheve, Kenneth, 2001. "Analyzing Incomplete Political Science Data: An Alternative Algorithm for Multiple Imputation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(1), pages 49-69, March.
    10. Daniel Read & Ann Bostrom & M. Granger Morgan & Baruch Fischhoff & Tom Smuts, 1994. "What Do People Know About Global Climate Change? 2. Survey Studies of Educated Laypeople," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(6), pages 971-982, December.
    11. Philip Cafaro, 2012. "Climate ethics and population policy," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(1), pages 45-61, January.
    12. Ofra Amir & David G Rand & Ya'akov Kobi Gal, 2012. "Economic Games on the Internet: The Effect of $1 Stakes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-4, February.
    13. Honaker, James & King, Gary & Blackwell, Matthew, 2011. "Amelia II: A Program for Missing Data," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i07).
    14. Gisela Böhm & Hans-Rüdiger Pfister, 2017. "The perceiver’s social role and a risk’s causal structure as determinants of environmental risk evaluation," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 732-759, June.
    15. Kevin E. Levay & Jeremy Freese & James N. Druckman, 2016. "The Demographic and Political Composition of Mechanical Turk Samples," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440166, March.
    16. Taciano L. Milfont, 2012. "The Interplay Between Knowledge, Perceived Efficacy, and Concern About Global Warming and Climate Change: A One‐Year Longitudinal Study," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 1003-1020, June.
    17. Nicholas Smith & Anthony Leiserowitz, 2014. "The Role of Emotion in Global Warming Policy Support and Opposition," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(5), pages 937-948, May.
    18. Paul M. Kellstedt & Sammy Zahran & Arnold Vedlitz, 2008. "Personal Efficacy, the Information Environment, and Attitudes Toward Global Warming and Climate Change in the United States," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 113-126, February.
    19. Ann Bostrom & M. Granger Morgan & Baruch Fischhoff & Daniel Read, 1994. "What Do People Know About Global Climate Change? 1. Mental Models," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(6), pages 959-970, December.
    20. Connie Roser-Renouf & Edward Maibach & Anthony Leiserowitz & Xiaoquan Zhao, 2014. "The genesis of climate change activism: from key beliefs to political action," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 163-178, July.
    21. Rachel Dryden & M. Granger Morgan & Ann Bostrom & Wändi Bruine de Bruin, 2018. "Public Perceptions of How Long Air Pollution and Carbon Dioxide Remain in the Atmosphere," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(3), pages 525-534, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ilaria Colivicchi & Gianluca Iannucci, 2023. "The Environmental Responsibility of Firms and Insurance Coverage in an Evolutionary Game," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 801-818, September.
    2. Helen Ross & Jennifer A. Rudd & R. Lyle Skains & Ruth Horry, 2021. "How Big Is My Carbon Footprint? Understanding Young People’s Engagement with Climate Change Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Lisbeth Weitensfelder & Karen Heesch & Elisabeth Arnold & Martin Schwarz & Kathrin Lemmerer & Hans-Peter Hutter, 2023. "Areas of Individual Consumption Reduction: A Focus on Implemented Restrictions and Willingness for Further Cut-Backs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Carl Latkin & Lauren Dayton & Catelyn Coyle & Grace Yi & Da-In Lee & Abigail Winiker, 2021. "The Relationship between Social Norms, Avoidance, Future Orientation, and Willingness to Engage in Climate Change Advocacy Communications," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Heidi Toivonen, 2022. "Themes of climate change agency: a qualitative study on how people construct agency in relation to climate change," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Grace B. Villamor & Steve J. Wakelin & Andrew Dunningham & Peter W. Clinton, 2023. "Climate change adaptation behaviour of forest growers in New Zealand: an application of protection motivation theory," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 1-25, February.
    8. Timothy Mc Call & Susanne Lopez Lumbi & Michel Rinderhagen & Meike Heming & Claudia Hornberg & Michaela Liebig-Gonglach, 2023. "Risk Perception of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: Influencing Factors and Implications for Environmental Health Crises," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.
    9. Niall McLoughlin, 2021. "Communicating efficacy: How the IPCC, scientists, and other communicators can facilitate adaptive responses to climate change without compromising on policy neutrality," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-14, November.
    10. Katherine M. Crosman & Ann Bostrom & Adam L. Hayes, 2019. "Efficacy Foundations for Risk Communication: How People Think About Reducing the Risks of Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(10), pages 2329-2347, October.
    11. Emily J. Kothe & Mathew Ling & Barbara A. Mullan & Joshua J. Rhee & Anna Klas, 2023. "Increasing intention to reduce fossil fuel use: a protection motivation theory-based experimental study," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Qi Guo & Palizhati Muhetaer & Ping Hu, 2023. "Cultural worldviews and support for governmental management of COVID-19," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Maddison Smith & Wiebke Finkler & Robert Aitken, 2023. "Connecting People with Science: A Proof-of-Concept Study to Evaluate Action-Based Storytelling for Science Communication," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, July.
    14. Dominic Balog‐Way & Katherine McComas & John Besley, 2020. "The Evolving Field of Risk Communication," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(S1), pages 2240-2262, November.
    15. Maria Rubio Juan & Melanie Revilla, 2021. "Support for mitigation and adaptation climate change policies: effects of five attitudinal factors," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 26(6), pages 1-22, August.
    16. Eugene Y. Chan & Jack Lin, 2022. "Political ideology and psychological reactance: how serious should climate change be?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 1-22, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katherine M. Crosman & Ann Bostrom & Adam L. Hayes, 2019. "Efficacy Foundations for Risk Communication: How People Think About Reducing the Risks of Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(10), pages 2329-2347, October.
    2. Whitney Fleming & Adam L. Hayes & Katherine M. Crosman & Ann Bostrom, 2021. "Indiscriminate, Irrelevant, and Sometimes Wrong: Causal Misconceptions about Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(1), pages 157-178, January.
    3. Rachel Dryden & M. Granger Morgan & Ann Bostrom & Wändi Bruine de Bruin, 2018. "Public Perceptions of How Long Air Pollution and Carbon Dioxide Remain in the Atmosphere," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(3), pages 525-534, March.
    4. Raya Muttarak & Thanyaporn Chankrajang, 2015. "Who is concerned about and takes action on climate change? Gender and education divides among Thais," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 13(1), pages 193-220.
    5. Hayam Elshirbiny & Wokje Abrahamse, 2020. "Public risk perception of climate change in Egypt: a mixed methods study of predictors and implications," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 10(3), pages 242-254, September.
    6. Emőke Kiss & Dániel Balla & András Donát Kovács, 2022. "Characteristics of Climate Concern—Attitudes and Personal Actions—A Case Study of Hungarian Settlements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-22, April.
    7. Hussey, Lucia Kafui & Arku, Godwin, 2019. "Conceptualizations of climate-related health risks among health experts and the public in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 40-50.
    8. Tai-Yi Yu & Tai-Kuei Yu, 2017. "The Moderating Effects of Students’ Personality Traits on Pro-Environmental Behavioral Intentions in Response to Climate Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, November.
    9. Adrian Brügger & Robert Tobias & Fredy S. Monge-Rodríguez, 2021. "Public Perceptions of Climate Change in the Peruvian Andes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, March.
    10. Antony Millner & Hélène Ollivier, 2016. "Beliefs, Politics, and Environmental Policy," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(2), pages 226-244.
    11. Kelly Klima & Wändi Bruine de Bruin & M. Granger Morgan & Iris Grossmann, 2012. "Public Perceptions of Hurricane Modification," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(7), pages 1194-1206, July.
    12. Thomas F. Thornton & Diana Mangalagiu & Yuge Ma & Jing Lan & Mahir Yazar & Ali Kerem Saysel & Abdel Maoula Chaar, 2020. "Cultural models of and for urban sustainability: assessing beliefs about Green-Win," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 521-537, June.
    13. Jing Shi & Vivianne H. M. Visschers & Michael Siegrist, 2015. "Public Perception of Climate Change: The Importance of Knowledge and Cultural Worldviews," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(12), pages 2183-2201, December.
    14. Todd S. Bridges & Daniel Kovacs & Matthew D. Wood & Kelsie Baker & Gordon Butte & Sarah Thorne & Igor Linkov, 2013. "Climate change risk management: a Mental Modeling application," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 376-390, September.
    15. Wändi Bruine de Bruin & Gabrielle Wong-Parodi & M. Granger Morgan, 2014. "Public perceptions of local flood risk and the role of climate change," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 591-599, December.
    16. Adrian Brügger & Moritz Gubler & Katharine Steentjes & Stuart B. Capstick, 2020. "Social Identity and Risk Perception Explain Participation in the Swiss Youth Climate Strikes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    17. Thea Gregersen & Rouven Doran & Gisela Böhm & Wouter Poortinga, 2021. "Outcome expectancies moderate the association between worry about climate change and personal energy-saving behaviors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-19, May.
    18. Ariel Malka & Jon A. Krosnick & Gary Langer, 2009. "The Association of Knowledge with Concern About Global Warming: Trusted Information Sources Shape Public Thinking," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 633-647, May.
    19. Julie C. Libarkin & Anne U. Gold & Sara E. Harris & Karen S. McNeal & Ryan P. Bowles, 2018. "A new, valid measure of climate change understanding: associations with risk perception," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 403-416, October.
    20. Travis William Reynolds & Ann Bostrom & Daniel Read & M. Granger Morgan, 2010. "Now What Do People Know About Global Climate Change? Survey Studies of Educated Laypeople," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(10), pages 1520-1538, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:39:y:2019:i:4:p:805-828. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.