Perceived behavioral plasticity and climate policy support among individuals

A substantial share of the required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can result from changes to individual consumer behaviors. While the technical mitigation potential of changing consumer behaviors is well-established, evidence on the feasibility of impactful behavior change remains scarcer. In a large, pre-registered international survey with mostly North American and European participants (N = 7,349), we examined the predictors and interrelationships between people’s perceived feasibility of changing consumer behaviors with low and high climate impact, their performance of these behaviors, and their support for behavior-regulating climate policies. We found using multiple regression analyses that the key predictors of perceived behavioral plasticity, policy support, and behavioral performance were the perceived need for system change and environmental identity with more mixed results observed for the perceived effectiveness of individual action for mitigating climate change and trust in government. Our findings underscore the untapped potential of changing individual behaviors to accelerate climate change mitigation, showing that there is considerable plasticity in several high-impact behaviors and that individual behavior change need not preclude support for political change.