Identity and voluntary efforts for climate protection

Abstract

Can voluntary contributions to public goods be motivated by identity concerns? In a theory-driven field experiment, we test how positive and negative shocks to subjects' environmental identity beliefs affect voluntary efforts for climate protection. In a real-effort task, subjects can generate donations that offset carbon emissions. Prior to the task, we manipulate subjects' beliefs about their environmental identity either positively or negatively compared to a control group. A negative shock to identity (‘identity threat’) increases effort by about 17% compared to our control group. This effect is largest for subjects that had a strong prior environmental identity belief. We find no evidence that a positive shock to identity does affect behavior. Our results are in line with some of the main predictions from the belief-based model of identity by Bénabou and Tirole (2011). They also have implications for policymakers and NGOs that want to encourage voluntary contributions to climate protection by leveraging people's identity concerns.