To create pro-environmental behavior change, use targeted messages that activate one of three basic values: concern for other humans, for equality, and for other living things. This resource reviews the research on these three values as motivators of sustainable behavior and provides concrete recommendations for how to activate them:
• To activate prosociality, or concern for humans, emphasize climate change’s harm to future generations.
• To activate egalitarianism, or concern about equality, emphasize climate change’s harm to those suffering the most (and who often have contributed the least to climate change), such as people living in hot and vulnerable climates.
• To activate concern about animals, emphasize climate change’s harm to animal life. Research shows that this even works when discussing harm to insects!