Climate change, behavior, and the possibility of spillover effects: recent advances and future directions

Abstract

Behavior change is widely recognized as an important strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Yet, positive or negative behavioral spillover effects—if prevalent—have the potential to render behavioral interventions more or less effective. Behavioral spillover occurs when the adoption of one behavior targeted by an intervention changes the likelihood that an individual will adopt one or more nontargeted behaviors. As spillover is defined as a causal process, methods that isolate cause-and-effect relationships are needed to generate evidence of spillover; however, non-experimental methods can still advance knowledge in the field. Recent work reveals growing evidence for positive spillover, including recent field studies involving commonly utilized behavioral interventions. Yet, on average, effects are small and also vary in direction and magnitude as a function of how behaviors are measured. Measurement artifacts as well as concerns of publication bias suggests the need for more work in this field.