Does lobbying discourage individuals from fighting climate change?

Abstract

Lobbying is commonly expected to reduce climate protection. Does such a belief affect individuals’ own climate protection efforts? According to conditional cooperation, for example, it should discourage individuals from contributing. I investigate this issue of high policy relevance using an online experiment with a large heterogeneous sample from the German population. To identify the causal effect of citizens’ beliefs about the impact of lobbying on climate protection, I induce exogenous variation in these beliefs and measure subsequent individual behavior. I find some evidence for a discouragement effect: Expecting a more negative impact of lobbying reduces individual contributions to climate protection. While not all considered behaviors show a significant effect, treatment differences consistently point in the same direction. These results emphasize the risk of spillover effects through citizens’ beliefs and lend support to a more holistic approach when evaluating the consequences of lobbying or climate policies.