Why it is so hard to teach people they can make a difference: climate change efficacy as a non-analytic form of reasoning

Abstract

People who believe they have greater efficacy to address climate change are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. To confront the climate crisis, it will therefore be essential to understand the processes through which climate change efficacy is promoted. Some interventions in the literature assume that efficacy emerges from analytic reasoning processes: that it is deliberative, verbal, conscious, and influenced by information and education. In the current paper, we critique this notion. We review evidence showing that climate change efficacy perceptions are (a) associated with climate-related distress and threat, (b) prescribed by social norms, (c) associated with social desirability and identity-expressive concerns, (d) surprisingly difficult to change through explicit, verbal instruction, but (e) responsive to imagery. We conclude by examining applied implications of these five propositions and discuss why non-analytic processes might (ironically) be beneficial for sustaining green activism.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• efficacy
• motivated reasoning
• non-analytic reasoning

Acknowledgements

We thank Tim Ballard for his useful comments on a previous draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.