Effects of Celebrity Climate Activism: Evidence from Thunberg's Visit to Canada

• In Event: Canadian Foreign Policy, Border Security, and the Environment

Abstract

Climate activist Greta Thunberg ostensibly galvanizes the public toward climate activism. She also receives considerable push-back, ranging from challenges that she underestimates the complexity of the climate debate to outright personal attacks. Despite Thunberg's centrality in recent climate activism, the effects of her actions on the climate movement and the public debate surrounding climate politics has yet to be systematically quantified. Recent work showed an association between self-reported familiarity with Thunberg and support for climate policies, but the design is unable to parse out the direction of causality. Using a difference-in-differences design that leverages Thunberg's drastically different levels of engagement during her October 2019 visit to Canada with people living in two otherwise similar Canadian cities, Calgary and Edmonton, we examined the causal effect of Thunberg's visits on her supporters and detractors across different time horizons. We collected georeferenced Twitter data from people living in the two cities and compared changes in their climate behavior following Thunberg's visit, both in terms of their engagement with the climate discussion and changes in their support toward climate policies. Beyond this specific case, our findings reveal the complex effects polarizing celebrity figures can have on the net societal support for a social cause.

Authors

• Ted Hsuan Yun Chen, George Mason University

• Sonja M. Savolainen, University of Helsinki