Survey experiment reveals celebrities and politicians could be the ‘missing link’ to mitigate climate change

Psychologists from Cardiff University have uncovered new insights into the role of celebrities and politicians in influencing public opinion on low-carbon lifestyles. The paper is published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.

“Behavior change is essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions quickly. Flying less, eating less meat, driving electric cars, improving home energy efficiency, increased use of public transport and active travel are some of the most impactful changes we can make. However, these choices have proved elusive in the general population and are rarely encouraged or modeled by high-status individuals,” said Dr. Steve Westlake from Cardiff University School of Psychology, who led the research.

“We wanted to understand the effects of politicians and celebrities walking the talk on climate change and whether this could influence the public to adopt low-carbon behaviors.”

The researchers analyzed the opinions of 1,267 people from across the UK in April 2021, measuring peoples’ responses to leaders who advocate for taking action on climate change, while either leading by example, or not leading by example.

The Cardiff psychologists tested theories of credibility and embodied leadership to understand how the status of celebrities and politicians could encourage low-carbon lifestyles. They found that visible leading by example from politicians and celebrities significantly increases the willingness of members of the UK public to make these high-impact low-carbon choices.

Dr. Westlake said, “We found that leading by example improves public willingness to adopt low-carbon behaviors. Not only this, but leading by example greatly increases perceptions of leader credibility, trustworthiness, competence, and favorability. Leaders need to be credible to lead effectively, so this could be an important finding.

“We also found there is a strong appetite for leadership among the public—people really want to see leaders acting first. Our results indicate that embodied leadership by way of visible low-carbon behavior may provide a crucial ‘missing link’ in addressing the climate crisis, because it shows that leaders really are serious about it.

“The results indicate that if leaders are advocating for various forms of climate action including behavior change, they will be more effective if they ‘walk the talk’ by adopting a suite of low-carbon behaviors, and will have a negative effect on the motivation of the public if they do not.

“Our study demonstrates that celebrities and politicians who lead by example are doing much more than just reducing their own carbon footprint—they also encourage others to act and improve their credibility.”