Social media posts, online petitions, writing to politicians and donating to environmental groups have been identified as popular starting points for climate activists, according to research from the University of Adelaide.
Dr Anastasia Ejova, Dr Peta Callaghan, Kath Whitson and David Thorpe from the School of Psychology, surveyed 519 Australians alarmed by climate change to analyse why they did or did not engage in 18 activism behaviours.
These behaviours included meeting, calling or writing to politicians, divesting from insurance policies, banks or superannuation, boycotting companies, organising protests, encouraging others to attend, supporting environmental groups, donating to causes or sharing social media posts.
The participants, aged between 17 and 79, were then asked to complete a checklist of motivators or barriers, with the quantitative and qualitative measures published in Communications, Earth & Environment .
“We wanted to provide an evidence base of climate-focused social movements who want to expand their membership bases,” said Dr Ejova.
“As part of this study, we were able to identify three levels of activism: least active (23 per cent of respondents), moderate activity (55 per cent) and most active (22 per cent).
“The most active participants were at least 75 per cent likely to engage in 13 of the behaviours, while participants in the other two classes reported engaging (to differing degrees) in seven: posting on social media, speaking with friends and family, signing online petitions, writing to a politician, boycotting companies, attending protests, and donating to environmental groups.”
Feelings of discomfort, a lack of experience and time constraints were amongst the most-common barriers noted.
While the least active class was younger than the other two, other demographics like gender, socio-economic status or location did not play a factor.
“The barriers identified by the classes were more behaviourally specific like a lack of experience or knowledge around financial activism,” said Ms Whitson.
“The study also found important activity and effective activity were the two most cited motivators for 14 behaviours, while having time and feeling comfortable were the next two most frequently cited.
“Feeling uncomfortable was the most frequent barrier for calling a politician, encouraging others to attend protests, and putting up protest posters.
“The moderately active class emerged as conflicted, in that they had similar patterns of motivators to the most active class, but similar patterns of barriers to the least active class.”
Researchers also outlined six recommendations to encourage more participation in activism, including focusing on messaging and a need for more information, potentially in the form of how-to guides.
“Across the two less active classes, lack of knowledge was most likely to be qualitatively reported around financial activism (boycotting and divesting from banks, insurance, and superannuation funds) and engagement with social movement organisations (attending meetings, attending training, and volunteering),” said Mr Thorpe.
“More also needs to be done around the younger demographic, perhaps even specially tailored information campaigns as the majority associated with the least active class, which suggests that climate activism – like political activism more generally – requires resources and skills around social integration that younger people may not yet possess.”
