A megastudy of behavioral interventions to catalyze public, political, and financial climate advocacy

Open Access
Authors
  • Danielle Goldwert
  • Sara M. Constantino
  • Yash Patel
  • Anandita Sabherwal
  • Christoph Semken
  • Cameron Brick ORCID logo
  • Anna Castiglione
  • Ramit Debnath
  • Kimberly C. Doell
  • Rachit Dubey
  • Ke Fang
  • Matthew H. Goldberg
  • Wei Ji Ma
  • Kristian S. Nielsen
  • Steve Rathje
  • Claudia R. Schneider
  • Michael Sheldrick
  • Ganga Shreedhar
  • Sander van der Linden
  • Janquel Acevedo
  • Raihan Alam
  • Mélusine Boon-Falleur
  • Ondrej Buchel
  • Xinghui Chen
  • Patricia W. Cheng
  • Adrien Fabre
  • Matthew Feinberg
  • Joris Frese
  • Kylie Fuller
  • Marvin Helferich
  • Jaroslaw Kantorowicz
  • Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko
  • Allen Kim
  • Joan J.H. Kim
  • Junho Lee
  • Artur Marchewka
  • Matto Mildenberger
  • Adam Pearson
  • John-Henry Pezzuto
  • Veronica Pizziol
  • Marjorie Prokosch
  • John Protzko
  • Guilherme A. Ramos
  • Willow Rose
  • David K. Sherman
  • Emma Swanson
  • Stylianos Syropoulos
  • Alessandro Tavoni
  • Maximilian H. Thiel
  • Leaf Van Boven
  • Robb Willer
  • Tao Yang
  • Dominika Zaremba
  • Madalina Vlasceanu
Publication date 01-2026
Journal PNAS nexus
Article number pgaf400
Volume | Issue number 5 | 1
Number of pages 16
Organisations
  • Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) - Psychology Research Institute (PsyRes)
Abstract
Addressing climate change depends on large-scale system changes, which require public advocacy. Here, we identified and tested 17 expert-crowdsourced theory-informed behavioral interventions designed to promote public, political, and financial advocacy in a large quota-matched sample of US residents ( n = 31,324). The most consistently effective intervention emphasized both the collective efficacy and emotional benefits of climate action, increasing advocacy by up to 10 percentage points. This was also the top intervention among participants identifying as Democrats. Appealing to binding moral foundations, such as purity and sanctity, was also among the most effective interventions, showing positive effects even among participants identifying as Republicans. These findings provide critical insights to policymakers and practitioners aiming to galvanize the public behind collective action and advocacy on climate change with affordable and scalable interventions.
Document type Article
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf400
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