Is there any evidence that people who recycle also advocate for institutional policy changes to combat man-made climate change?

post by jbosc · 2021-01-22T08:14:58.675Z · EA · GW · No comments

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    Jamie_Harris
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It seems intuitive to me that people who recycle are more likely to vote for politicians that promise to reduce carbon emissions, or to volunteer for non-profits for example. 

Is that true though? The rebuttal might be that recycling just makes people feel good about themselves and prevents them from having a more concrete impact (i.e. if everyone started recycling correctly, we would barely make a dent in fossil fuel emissions).

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answer by Jamie_Harris · 2021-02-02T20:11:28.333Z · EA(p) · GW(p)

There's actually evidence that recycling produces a "moral licencing" effect, but there is evidence from other social movements that people who participate in consumer action are more likely to participate in wider institutional tactics.

(Apologies for the lack of links/citations for now, but I have a post coming out soon which discuses this briefly!)

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