CeDEx Seminar - Till Weber (Newcastle University)

Income-based social norms and willingness to act against climate change

We investigate the role of income-based reference networks in the relationship between social norms and individuals’ willingness to act against climate change. In an online experiment with low- and high-income participants, respondents are randomly assigned to either receive information about the prevalence of climate-friendly actions in their own income group, the other income group, or no information. We find that the prevalence of climate-friendly actions is underestimated for both, the low-and high-income group. Correcting misperceptions regarding the low-income group increases individual willingness to act against climate change, as measured by an incentivized donation task, for inequality-averse high-income participants only. Correcting misperceptions about the high-income group does not increase individuals’ willingness to act.