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Channeling environmentalism into climate policy: an experimental study of Fridays for Future participants from Germany
[journal article]
Abstract This study argues that scholars and policy-makers need to understand environmental activists better to bridge the gap between growing activism and policy. Conventional wisdom is that environmental activists generally support stronger climate policies. But there is still little understanding about di... view more
This study argues that scholars and policy-makers need to understand environmental activists better to bridge the gap between growing activism and policy. Conventional wisdom is that environmental activists generally support stronger climate policies. But there is still little understanding about diversity of views within activist groups when it comes to specific policies, and existing studies indicate that their views are not uniform, which can weaken their impact as a group. Activists might unite to demand change, but not necessarily agree on details of the desired change. Exploring the differences within the group, this paper focuses on how to nudge those who already share favorable attitudes towards policies that mitigate climate change. The motivation has been to see, in presence of general support for stronger environmental policies, whether this support could be channeled into more specific policies. We first take on a methodological challenge to construct an index of environmental predisposition. Then drawing from existing social-behavioral scholarship, we analyze results of an experimental survey with select treatments previously reported as promising. In November and December 2019, we collected responses from 119 participants at the Fridays for Future demonstrations in Germany. The results indicate that there are indeed important differences within the group, and nudging effects exist even in this rather strongly predisposed group, with participants assigned to the experimental group showing higher levels of support for the introduction of a carbon tax that is traditionally seen as a difficult policy to gain widespread public support. We find that those who score neither too high nor too low are more likely to respond to nudging. Yet, the effects vary for general outcomes such as policy support, behavioral intentions, and environmental citizenship. Overall, the findings show the value of understanding the heterogeneity of individual views within environmental movements better and directing interventions in large resource systems such as climate to specific issues and target groups for accelerating transformations towards sustainability.... view less
Keywords
climate protection; environmental protection; climate policy; political activity; political behavior; Federal Republic of Germany; protest movement; social movement; climate change
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Ecology, Environment
Free Keywords
Politbarometer 2019; nudging; framing; benefit sharing; Fridays for Future
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 1-12
Journal
Environmental Research Letters, 16 (2021)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac30f7
ISSN
1748-9326
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed