Scholarlink

<p>Globally, people underestimate others’ support for climate action—a phenomenon frequently described as pluralistic ignorance, which is seen as a major barrier to collective climate engagement. However, little is known about whether pluralistic ignorance occurs regarding actual behaviour, what mechanisms underlie it and whether correcting it changes such behaviours. Here, across five preregistered experiments (<i>N</i> = 5,081), we found that participants overestimated rare actual behaviours such as others’ donating or political engagement for climate action, while we replicated the underestimation of broad public support. Misestimations arise primarily from general cognitive processes when estimating proportions. Finally, correcting these misperceptions partly affected self-reported donation willingness but not actual donations. These findings suggest that pluralistic ignorance in the climate domain may be more intricate and less consequential than previously thought.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

People systematically under- and overestimate public engagement in climate action

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月7日

查看全文
  • Kevin E. Tiede,
  • Kira Maur,
  • Cornelia Betsch

摘要

Globally, people underestimate others’ support for climate action—a phenomenon frequently described as pluralistic ignorance, which is seen as a major barrier to collective climate engagement. However, little is known about whether pluralistic ignorance occurs regarding actual behaviour, what mechanisms underlie it and whether correcting it changes such behaviours. Here, across five preregistered experiments (N = 5,081), we found that participants overestimated rare actual behaviours such as others’ donating or political engagement for climate action, while we replicated the underestimation of broad public support. Misestimations arise primarily from general cognitive processes when estimating proportions. Finally, correcting these misperceptions partly affected self-reported donation willingness but not actual donations. These findings suggest that pluralistic ignorance in the climate domain may be more intricate and less consequential than previously thought.