Joe Braun and Felipe Westhelle, Ph.D. students at the University of Maryland Department of Government and Politics, presented their research project titled “Caring is Sharing? The Role of Social Pressures in Climate Advocacy” on April 20th. This research received an award through the 2015-2016 PSE Graduate Travel and Research grant program. While individual awareness of the gravity of environmental crises is growing, comparatively few have systematically altered their behavior in support of those concerns. Their research explores the role social pressures may have in bridging the gap between climate change attitudes and behavior.
To simulate social pressure, they conducted a survey experiment and exposed some participants to an image of “watching eyes,” while asking them to sign a pro-environment petition or donate to an environmental cause. They found certain groups of individuals are greatly influenced by the effects of the eyes. Mainly, participants exposed to the image of watching eyes were more likely to sign a pro-environmental petition. This effect was particularly pronounced among political liberals and those with very “environmentalist” social networks. This contributes to our understanding of the role that social dynamics play in individual decisions about the environment, and the degree to which pressures from within one’s social networks may be effective in motivating action.
Their future projects include closer investigation of effective ways of creating social pressure, field experiments, and strategies for socializing climate change. For more information, contact the authors at jpbraun@umd.edu and fwesthel@umd.edu.
Their future projects include closer investigation of effective ways of creating social pressure, field experiments, and strategies for socializing climate change. For more information, contact the authors at jpbraun@umd.edu and fwesthel@umd.edu.
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