Skip to main content

Triggering Communal Peer Pressure: Spreading a Shared Understanding of Demands

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Emancipatory Climate Actions

Abstract

Communal peer pressure catalyzes a sense of obligation among social groups, and encourages and nudges people who, at first, may not identify with those groups to blend, fit in, and conform to the larger expectations of those groups. Social comparison—communal peer pressure, horizontal diffusion of climate actions, and instilling a strong sense of common obligation—could be summoned as a motivator for climate actions. Mobilization strategies built around it can complement established drivers of participation such as care for sustainability, forethinking about the future generations of humans and non-humans, and economic incentives.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alcott, H. (2011). Social norms and energy conservation. Journal of Public Economics, 95, 1082–1095.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayres, I., Raseman, S., & Shih, A. (2012). Evidence from two large field experiments that peer comparison feedback can reduce residential energy usage. The Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, 29, 992–1022.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brekke, K. A., & Johansson-Stenman, O. (2008). The behavioural economics of climate change. The Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 24, 280–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. M. (1989). Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R. B. (2003). Crafting normative messages to protect the environment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 105–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R. B., & Goldstein, N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 591–621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cialdini, R. B., Reno, R. R., & Kallgren, C. A. (1990). A focus theory of normative conduct: Recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 1015–1026.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, M. S., Ouellette, R., Powell, M. C., & Milberg, S. (1987). Recipient’s mood, relationship type, and helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 94–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cruz-Del Rosario, T., & Dorsey, J. M. (2013). Street, shrine, square, and soccer pitch: Comparative protest spaces in Asia and the Middle East. Air & Space Power Journal-Africa & Francophonie, 4, 80–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalton, D. (1993). Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, N. (2016, October 24). Pope Francis’s edict on climate change has fallen on closed ears, study finds. The Guardian. https://bit.ly/2dPExbg.

  • Donner, S. D., & McDaniels, J. (2013). The influence of national temperature fluctuations on opinions about climate change in the U.S. since 1990. Climatic Change, 118, 537–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gandhi, M. K. (1930). Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Vol. 43). New Delhi: Digital Library of India.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, M. R. (2014). Energy policy and research: The under-appreciation of trust. Energy Research & Social Science, 1, 152–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IPCC. (2018). Summary for Policymakers. In V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P. R. Shukla, A. Pirani, & W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J. B. R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M. I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, & T. Waterfield (Eds.), Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty (p. 32). Geneva, Switzerland: World Meteorological Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Wittlin, M., Slovic, P., Ouellette, L. L., Braman, D., & Mandel, G. (2012). The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks. Nature Climate Change, 2, 732–735.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kallbekken, S., & Sælen, H. (2013). ‘Nudging’ hotel guests to reduce food waste as a win–win environmental measure. Economics Letters, 119, 325–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kallbekken, S., Sælen, H., & Hermansen, E. A. T. (2012). Bridging the energy efficiency gap: A field experiment on lifetime energy costs and household appliances. Journal of Consumer Policy, 36, 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kallgren, C. A., Reno, R. R., & Cialdini, R. B. (2000). A focus theory of normative conduct: When norms do and do not affect behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1002–1012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohl, H. (2000). Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. In J. Birnbaum & C. Taylor (Eds.), Civil Rights Since 1787: A Reader on the Black Struggle. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montiel, C. J. (2006). Political psychology of nonviolent democratic transitions in Southeast Asia. Journal of Social Issues, 62, 173–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parks, R. (1992). Rosa Parks: My Story. New York: Dial Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, D. A., Rochford, E. B., Worden, S. K., & Benford, R. D. (1986). Frame alignment processes, micromobilization, and movement participation. American Sociological Review, 51, 464–481.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Small, D. A., & Simonsohn, U. (2008). Friends of victims: Personal experience and prosocial behaviour. Journal of Consumer Research, 35, 532–542.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spence, A., Poortinga, W., & Pidgeon, N. (2012). The psychological distance of climate change: Psychological distance of climate change. Risk Analysis, 32, 957–972.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Srnicek, N., & Williams, A. (2016). Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern, P. (2014). Individual and household interactions with energy systems: Toward integrated understanding. Energy Research & Social Science, 1, 41–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1986). Framing of Decisions. Economic Theory, 251, 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, E. U. (2006). Experience-based and description-based perceptions of long-term risk: Why global warming does not scare us (yet). Climatic Change, 77, 103–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, E. U. (2010). What shapes perceptions of climate change? WIREs Climate Change, 1, 332–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Delina, L.L. (2019). Triggering Communal Peer Pressure: Spreading a Shared Understanding of Demands. In: Emancipatory Climate Actions. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17372-2_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17372-2_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17371-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17372-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics