A new study has found that climate policies that push people to change how they live, such as eating less meat, banning cars from city centres or cutting air travel, may weaken public support for climate action.
Research published in Nature Sustainability suggests that some policies aimed at changing personal behaviour can backfire if people feel they are being forced to comply. Instead of strengthening environmental commitment, such measures may erode people’s underlying “green” values and reduce support for other climate policies.
“Policies don’t just spur a target behaviour,” said Katrin Schmelz, a behavioural economist and psychologist at the Technical University of Denmark and lead author of the study. “They can change people’s underlying values, leading to unintended negative effects.”
The researchers surveyed more than 3,000 people in Germany, using a sample designed to reflect the country’s demographics. Participants were asked about a range of climate policies, with questions about Covid-19 restrictions included for comparison.
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The findings show that mandates targeting lifestyle choices, such as urban car bans, can provoke strong resistance, even among people who already try to live sustainably. In some cases, respondents reacted more negatively to climate rules than to pandemic restrictions.
The study describes this response as a “crowding-out effect”, where resentment towards being controlled overrides people’s existing motivation to make environmentally friendly choices, such as cycling, using public transport or reducing energy use at home.
“These crowding-out effects are big enough that policymakers should worry,” said Sam Bowles, an economist at the Santa Fe Institute and co-author of the paper.
Story was adapted from Independent.
