Climate Terminology Does Not Matter

Across tens of thousands of participants in two large-scale experiments, we found that labeling climate change in different ways had no effect on their stated willingness to act.
jayvanbavellab.substack.com/p/climate-te...

via @dgoldwert.bsky.social

Now officially out in @pnas.org with @greggsparkman.bsky.social! Almost 90% of Christian religious leaders believe in anthropogenic climate change. American congregants underestimate this consensus. Communicating this has important consequences for norms and beliefs!
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Another fantastic #SPSP2025 (my 6th year!). Honored to co-chair the Sustainability pre-con with @sgonzalezcoffin.bsky.social and a symposium, "Psychology at the Forefront of Looming Societal Challenges," with @anasabherwal.bsky.social, ft. @steverathje.bsky.social & @JonRoozenbeek as co-presenters

Should we use "Climate Change", "Climate Crisis", "Global Warming" or another term for this environmental disaster? It doesn't seem to matter! @researchdigest.bsky.social just covered one of our papers led by @dgoldwert.bsky.social with @jayvanbavel.bsky.social & @madalina.bsky.social
Check it out👇

🚨 New preprint! 🚨

We analysed over one million actions reported in the AWorld app, the UN's official platform for individual action on climate change: osf.io/preprints/ps...

This was an exciting collaboration with @kristiansn89.bsky.social, Jan Bauer, Laura Basconi, & @cameronbrick.bsky.social 🧵👇

1️⃣ post here!
Despite decades of research, why is positive pro-environmental behavioral spillover so hard to achieve?
@greggsparkman.bsky.social and my review highlights that social and institutional drivers are needed to spur rapid positive spillover
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kK0t8MqMi...

Thanks Mike! Wouldn’t have been possible without your leadership

Thanks Jay!! Great point, just added that

Full paper available here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interestingly, when it comes to messaging, the responses varied by political orientation. Liberals were most responsive to messages that reduced the psychological distance to climate change, while conservatives were motivated by the opportunity to write a letter to future generations.

We found that despite polarization in climate beliefs and policy support, conservatives and liberals globally were equally willing to participate in a tree-planting task— culminating in the planting of 333,000 trees! Our study tested 11 interventions across 60 countries with over 51,000 participants

Very honored to have won the APA Science Poster Competition Grand Prize! Thanks to all who voted, and to the amazing team behind this project @mikeberkwein.bsky.social @kimdoell.bsky.social @jayvanbavel.bsky.social @madalina.bsky.social

From 1.5C to 2C of global warming is an increase by 33.3 percent. Many people assume that the negative impacts of this would also increase by only 33.3 percent. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The increase is non-linear.
This is one of the biggest missing pieces in public climate literacy.

New open access article assessing the common ground between liberals and conservatives on why nature is worth preserving. Turns out they share a lot in common!

I did this work with Adam Baimel (@abaimel.bsky.social ), Taciano Milfont, and Ara Norenzayan. 1/n

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Just wrapped up an inspiring few days at the Human Behavior and Climate Change Conference in Palo Alto! Huge thanks to @madalina.bsky.social @smconstantino.bsky.social @helenamiton.bsky.social and @nicoleardoin for putting together such a fantastic group of speakers and attendees 🌎

Not to disregard my own advice to stop focusing on subtle terminology… but that is an interesting point! I’m also curious about how terms might perform in a more substantial, longitudinal context, or how they could impact behaviors beyond intentions. Exciting avenues for future research!

I often have people telling me that if we just change the name that will get people on board.

Newsflash: it won't.

Better news: here's what will-helping people connect what they know (their heads) to why they care (their hearts) to what they can do (their hands)!

ewn.erdc.dren.mil/podcasts/epi...

What's better: climate "change” 🆚 “crisis” 🆚 “emergency”?

New work shows that subtle tweaks in language don't make a difference to green action ⬇️

🔗 bit.ly/4gnhuko

Insight with a climate policy steer: focus on something else 🔎

@jayvanbavel.bsky.social
@dgoldwert.bsky.social
@madalina.bsky.social

In a new interdisciplinary Nature Climate Change Perspective paper, led by me, @lisgilmore and Rachael Shwom, we offer a critical perspective on #climate and social “tipping points.” 🎁: rdcu.be/d2gBC 🧵

Net Zero needs behavior change.

For decarbonization, we need to understand how to enable and encourage green choices (fairly).

That’s means shifting: how we heat our homes, how we travel, and what we eat and consume.

Don’t ask me, check the latest IPCC report ⬇️

🔗 www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/w...

Well taken! I agree that focusing on actual behavior is also crucial for making a real impact. Based on our findings, we suggest allocating more resources toward strategies that have a greater effect on real-world actions 🌞

Good point! Since intentions are easier to influence than behaviors, and we found no significant differences there, I suspect that subtle changes in terminology wouldn’t meaningfully impact climate action either. But I’d love to replicate these findings using actual behavioral measures!