How to Encourage More Climate-Friendly Habits, According to Science

Time -   Earlier this week, researchers in Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S. released one of the most comprehensive reviews to-date of our research on what works in making people take action on climate, and what doesn’t. One of the top line findings is striking: expecting people to change their behavior based on simply telling them what is good or bad for the planet doesn’t work very well. Instead, the most powerful influence is what other people around you are doing.

Across hundreds of studies, which assessed situations from whether people chose meat or vegetarian food options to whether people tossed cans in a recycling bin or the trash, the researchers determined that subjects changed their behavior by an average of just 3% when they were educated about the climate consequences of their actions, like energy labels on products.... By contrast, when people were presented with financial incentives, they changed their behavior by 4 times as much, 12%, on average. As it turns out, when it comes to taking action to stop climate change, the best way of changing people’s behavior is what the researchers termed “social comparisons,” which resulted in an average 14% change in people’s behavior. Basically, when people see that other people have taken a specific action, they’re likely to copy it