Climate Culture National Index

Study overview

Research goal

To track the state of leading indicators of behavior adoption and psycho-social states for high-impact climate mitigating behaviors among the American population.

Sample

We recruited 1,999 U.S. adults, quota sampled to match the Census data in age x sex x ethnicity and household income. The sample was additionally weighted to be representative of the population in age x sex x ethnicity, Hispanic origin, household income, adult state population, and the segments of Global Warming’s Six Americas.

Measures

For 7 high-impact climate behaviors, we measured 10 indicators identified as either important enablers or leading indicators of climate action.

• Adoption
  • Reported adoption of the behavior
    • Example: Do you currently get your electricity from a green energy provider?
  • For “continuous”/repeated behaviors, such as flying less, eating less meat, and reducing food waste, we measured attempt
    • Example: Are you trying to fly less frequently than you used to?
• Intention
  • Reported intention to perform the behavior in the future
    • Example: How likely is it that you will have solar panels installed in the next 12 months?
• Beliefs that others have adopted
  • Perceived number of others that have adopted the behavior (empirical expectations)
    • Example: Imagine 10 drivers you know. If you had to guess, how many of them do you think drive a fully electric car?
• Beliefs that others should adopt
  • Beliefs that other people should adopt the behavior because it is the right thing to do (personal normative beliefs)
    • Example: If people have the choice, should they choose a green energy provider because it is the right thing to do?
• Beliefs that others think people should adopt
  • Perceived number of others that think one should adopt the behavior because it is the right thing to do (normative expectations)
    • Example: Imagine 10 people you know. If you had to guess, how many of them think that people should purchase carbon offsets because it is the right thing to do?
• Self-efficacy
  • How confident is the person in their ability to adopt the behavior
    • Example: How confident are you in your ability to fly less frequently?
• Consideration
  • Whether the person has considered adopting the behavior in the past
    • Example: Before taking this survey, have you ever considered limiting your meat consumption?
• Program interest
  • Reported interest in participating in the program that helps adopt the behavior
    • Example: How interested would you be in participating in a program which helps you purchase a fully electric car?
• Perceived personal benefit
  • Perceived personal benefit as the result of adopting the behavior
    • Example: How much do you think purchasing carbon offsets would benefit you personally?
• Perceived community benefit
  • Perceived community benefit as the result of the person adopting the behavior
    • Example: How much do you think you choosing a green energy provider would benefit your community?

Guide to interpreting differences in the results table

We calculated the average value of each indicator for each behavior.

• The values in the Adoption, Intention, Others should adopt, Consideration, and Program interest columns are on the scale from 0% to 100%. For example, a difference of 10 in the Adoption column means that 10% more people report adopting the behavior.
• The numbers in the Self-efficacy, Perceived personal benefit, and Perceived community benefit columns represent the average score on a 5-point Likert item for that scale. We use the average of the item, as is standard in psychology, rather than the Top Two Box percentage, because of the bias the Top Two Box introduces in under-emphasizing the degree of response, particularly of negative responses.
• The numbers in the Others have adopted and Others think people should adopt columns represent the numbers out of 10 people the respondent thinks have adopted the behavior and thinks others believe people should adopt the behavior. These numbers were re-coded to 100%. For example, a difference of 10 in the Others have adopted column means that people believe 1 more person has adopted the behavior.

Results

Table 1

Taking “Purchase green energy” behavior as an example, here is how to read Table 1:

• Adoption
  • Question: Do you currently get your electricity from a green energy provider? [Yes or No]
  • Interpretation: 11.60% of U.S. adults say they currently get electricity from a green energy provider
• Intention
  • Question: How likely is it that you will have a green energy provider in the next 12 months? [0%-100%]
  • Interpretation: Among U.S. adults average reported likelihood of having a green energy provider in the next 12 months is 23.07%
• Beliefs that others have adopted
  • Question: Imagine 10 households you know. If you had to guess, how many of them do you think get their electricity from a green energy provider? [0-10]
  • Interpretation: On average, U.S. adults say they know 1 household that gets their electricity from a green energy provider
• Beliefs that others should adopt
  • Question: If people have the choice, should they choose a green energy provider because it is the right thing to do? [Yes or No]
  • Interpretation: 64.06% of U.S. adults say if people have the choice they should choose a green energy provider because it is the right thing to do
• Beliefs that others think people should adopt
  • Question: Imagine 10 people you know. If you had to guess, how many think that people should choose a green energy provider because it is the right thing to do? [0-10]
  • Interpretation: On average, U.S. adults say 3 people they know think people should choose a green energy provider because it is the right thing to do
• Self-efficacy
  • Question: How confident are you in your ability to choose a green energy provider? [5pt Likert, Extremely confident - Not at all confident]
  • Interpretation: Among U.S. adults average confidence to choose a green energy provider is at 2.65/5
• Consideration
  • Question: Before taking this survey, have you considered getting electricity from a green energy provider in the last 12 months? [Yes or No]
  • Interpretation: 27.18% of U.S. adults say they have considered getting electricity from a green energy provider
• Program interest
  • Question: How interested would you be in participating in a program which helps you choose a green energy provider? [0-10]
  • Interpretation: Among U.S. adults average interest in participating in a program which helps choose a green energy provider is 44.70%
• Perceived personal benefit
  • Question: How much do you think choosing a green energy provider would benefit you personally? [5pt Likert, Benefit me a lot - Not benefit me at all]
  • Interpretation: Among U.S. adults average perceived personal benefit of choosing a green energy provider is at 3.16/5
• Perceived community benefit
  • Question: How much do you think you choosing a green energy provider would benefit your community? [5pt Likert, Benefit my community a lot - Not benefit my community at all]
  • Interpretation: Among U.S. adults average perceived community benefit of choosing a green energy provider is at 3.23/5

Table 2

We over-sampled respondents from three sub-groups of the population (Black or African American people; Hispanic people; people with household income above $100,000/year) to make comparisons between indicators of behavior adoption and psycho-social states across these sub-groups.

Table 2 presents the differences in the behavior adoption indicators and psycho-social states between a particular sub-group and the national data.

Taking “Eat less meat” behavior as an example behavior and “Adoption” as an example indicator, here is how to read Table 2:

• Adoption
  • Question: Are you trying to limit your meat consumption? [Yes or No]
    • National: 31% of Americans are trying to eat less meat
    • Hispanic people sub-group: 36% of Hispanic people are trying to eat less meat (31% National + 5% Hispanic)
    • Black or African American people sub-group: 39% of Black or African American people are trying to eat less meat (31% National + 8% Black or African American)
    • Household Income $100,000+/year sub-group: 32% of people with household income $100,000+/year are trying to eat less meat (31% National + 1% HH Income $100,000+/year)