Social norms as a powerful lever for motivating pro-climate actions

Encouraging widespread collective action on climate change remains a difficult challenge. Social norms are amongst the most effective levers in the behavioral intervention toolkit for engendering large-scale behavior change. Many studies have shown potential for social norms to motivate sustainable actions and climate change mitigation behaviors. As such, they can occupy an important role within the repertoire of interventions that might help to reduce global emissions. It is thus crucial to understand what social norms are, what key insights the current literature has to offer on how norms can be effectively leveraged to motivate (long-term) behavior change, what challenges lay ahead, and what open questions need further research. This primer offers a timely account of the power and potential of social norms in fostering pro-climate behavior change and sheds light on where opportunities lie for further inter- and trans-disciplinary research that can produce actionable and policy-relevant insights.