For years I’ve been fascinated by ‘values and framing’ in social change communications – the study of people’s deeply held values on social issues (which can often surprise us), and how to shape and frame our messages to appeal to these values (something we often get badly wrong). This recent piece from The Guardian covers research done by the University of Bonn, diving into people’s perceptions of how others feel about climate change.
They learned:
- People across the world are united in wanting action to fight the climate crisis but remain a silent majority, because they wrongly think only a minority share their views
- 89% of people across the world wanted their national governments to do more to fight climate change
- More than two-thirds said they were willing to give 1% of their income to fight the climate crisis
- However they thought only a minority of other people would be willing to do the same
- 72% of the UK public supported onshore wind being built in their areas, but only 19% of MPs thought a majority of their constituents did so
- Even voters of the right-wing Reform UK party care about climate change – 62% of the people who voted for them in 2024 said it was important that the government cares about tackling climate change
Now, we all know that hypothetical future donations are not something to be counted on; but the insights in this research about the desire for government action and perceptions of others’ commitment, are extremely interesting and useful. People perceive climate action as unpopular when in fact it’s the opposite.
Dr Adrien Fabre, from the International Centre for Research on Environment and Development in France, who led a research study testing support for the redistrubtion of money from global emissions: “Making people aware of this would help a lot and bring hope. I think a lot of people are self-censoring and not fighting or voting [for climate action] because they think that their ideas are not in the zeitgeist. There is also majority support for global redistribution policies, even among people in high-income countries who understand that they would have to pay for it. This is because people attach value to the human rights and wellbeing of fellow human beings and to a stable climate.”
Those of us working on climate change, environmentalism and conservation need to ensure these messages are threaded through all our communications. We all know how powerful the ‘social norm’ is in messaging; and the social norm is that people want change and action on our climate.
Read the full piece on TheGuardian.com – it’s very detailed and interesting