SRA-E Lisbon 2017

The European Perception of Climate Change (EPCC) project offers a unique opportunity to gain insights into the social processes that shape public perceptions of climate change, support for related policies and personal action. The cross-national survey, conducted in Germany, France, Norway and the United Kingdom allows us to examine social constructs as individual level predictors and as predictors of between-country differences. A vast body of literature established that individual beliefs and actions are influenced by what the social environment approves of (injunctive norms) and by what others are doing (descriptive norms). In addition to using these two traditional measures of social norms (Cialdini, 1990), we ask respondents about their willingness to enforce these norms. This willingness to confront other is a reflection of underlying norms and also a process of change (Swim, 2013). The additional measure of interpersonal activism helps us to capture multiple facets of social norms and thereby broaden our understanding of how norms shape public perceptions of climate change. The survey was conducted in June 2016 in the UK (n=1033), Germany (n=1001), France (n=1010), and Norway (n=1004). The interviews were conducted via telephone in Norway and face to face in Germany, UK and France. The questionnaire consisted of 71 closed and three open questions to measure climate change belief, energy preferences, policy support and related psychological constructs. Stepwise regression analyses per country show that injunctive and descriptive norms predict individuals’ willingness to reduce energy (to help mitigate climate change); when tested alongside other predictors such as political values, environmental identity and concern about climate change. The analyses of peoples’ willingness to engage in acts of interpersonal activism reveal that concern about climate change, environmental identity and injunctive norms directly predict respondents willingness to act, while descriptive norms have an indirect effect on interpersonal activism by increasing feelings of collective efficacy (for UK, Germany and Norway). Furthermore, multiple mediation analyses demonstrate that different levels of perceived social norms associated with climate change, also (partly) explain the higher support for mitigation policies and the Paris Climate agreement in France and Norway compared to Germany and the UK. The results of the cross national EPCC survey provide evidence for the relevance of social norms shaping individual responses to climate change as well as being able to explain national differences in policy support between four major European countries. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings will be discussed.