Date & Time: 2024.8.8 (Thu) 15:00-
Location: Hokkaido University, Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, room E304
Speaker: Professor Kim-Pong Tam (Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Abstract:
As public support is important for policy changes, it is crucial to understand how to encourage citizens to accept climate policies. Based on the widely documented social psychological phenomenon regarding the effect of descriptive norms on human behavior, I hypothesized that people’s support for emissions reduction policies to be implemented in their own country would be stronger when they perceive a global norm of climate action by other national governments. Findings frow two surveys and one experiment provide supportive evidence for this hypothesis and also reveal potential underlying mediators. These findings introduce a novel perspective to the understanding of public attitudes toward climate policies: That is, communicators and policy makers can leverage the power of social influence, via the use of messages built around narratives of a global norm, to garner public support for domestic climate efforts.