The social foundations of collective climate action

Abstract

This interdisciplinary review explores intragroup and interpersonal precursors to collective climate action. First, we highlight structural perspectives into collective action, noting that efforts are moving beyond individual-level scientific literacy and instead situating climate literacy at the community level (i.e. community-based climate literacy). We highlight perspectives in community-based scientific literacy that conceptualize literacy as distributed throughout a group rather than solely held within individuals, and, grounded in theory on community-based climate literacy, we examine structural perspectives into how collective action can diffuse through social networks and into new communities. Next, we explore the social psychological literature on motivators of collective climate action, highlighting four interrelated intergroup and intrapersonal factors that recent research increasingly suggests are key to fostering collective action: (a) group identification, (b) empowerment to act, (c) social norms and influence, and (d) conversations. Collectively, this synthesis of recent research insights suggests promise for understanding and promoting collective climate action.