Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

10. Collective Efficacy

10.1 Four in ten registered voters are confident they can affect what the federal government and corporations do about global warming.

Perceived collective efficacy regarding global warming – the belief that like-minded citizens can work together to influence what government and business leaders do about global warming – is an important motivator for individuals to take collective action.Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 75-78. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00064 Forty percent of registered voters are at least “moderately confident” that people like them, working together, can affect what the federal government does about global warming. Similarly, 40% are at least “moderately confident” that people like them, working together, can affect what corporations do about global warming.

About half of liberal Democrats and moderate/conservative Democrats, and about one-third of liberal/moderate Republicans, express collective efficacy regarding global warming, Conservative Republicans express the lowest collective efficacy, although that may in part be because they are less likely to support action on global warming overall.