Strengthening accountability for climate change: Experimental evidence on grassroots demand for government action in Mexico

Abstract

Translating citizen concerns into corresponding action by their governments is a key challenge for democratic institutions. We experimentally study two behavioral science approaches at the research frontier aimed at strengthening citizen pressure on government to combat climate change. The first approach targets social norms describing aggregate levels of concern about, and willingness to act on, climate change. The second approach, “deep engagement,” encourages deliberate reflection and system-2 cognition about climate change. 2,000 Mexican adults were randomized into either treatment or a placebo control. The study was conducted online, with initial treatment followed by four short reinforcements spaced at intervals of five days. We measured behaviors, attitudes, and norms through surveys just before treatment and a month after. At endline, both treatments improved dictator-game donations to an anonymous pro-climate citizen, choice of an environmental NGO as recipient of a researcher donation, and willingness to sign a petition asking government to honor its international climate commitments. However, only the social norms treatment rendered participants more optimistic about fellow citizens’ concern about, and willingness to act on, climate change, while deep engagement rendered them slightly more pessimistic. Our findings suggest that it is possible to transform citizen concern into grassroots pressure for government climate policy.