Public Resource
The attitude-behavior gap on climate action: How can it be bridged?
Matthew Ballew, Jennifer Carman, Marija Verner et al. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
There is a large gap between people’s interest in climate activism and their self-reported actions. Social norms are linked with increased follow-through. First, there is a big difference between those who say that they “definitely” or “probably” would take an action. Americans who follow through on climate activism tend to feel more social pressure to do so. Comparing the “definitely willing and active” (people who say that they would “definitely” take some form of action and also report doing so in the past 12 months) to the “definitely willing but inactive” (people who say that they would “definitely” take some form of action but report that they haven’t done so in the past 12 months), there are some notable differences in the social norms that these two groups perceive. People who take action also tend to feel a greater sense of self-efficacy.