Role of Collective Efficacy in Climate Change Communication: A Multilevel Analysis

• In Event: Media, Social Media, and Environmental Action

Abstract

Climate change communication scientists are increasingly concerned about how best to communicate the challenges of climate change to increase public engagement. Successful mitigation and adaptation to climate change, however, requires behavioral and policy changes at the individual, community, and national levels. Based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory, this paper examines the role of collective efficacy—people’s shared beliefs about their group’s capabilities to accomplish collective tasks—in influencing Indians’ adaptive capacity to deal with drinking water scarcity, a condition likely to be exacerbated in the future by climate change. Using data from a national survey (N=4031) in India, we found that individuals’ with robust collective efficacy beliefs are more likely to participate in community activities intended to ensure the adequacy of water supplies. Moreover, the relationship between individual collective efficacy and behavioral involvement was stronger in communities with high levels of community collective efficacy compared to communities with low levels of community collective efficacy. In addition, the level of collective efficacy in the community was positively associated with self-reported community adaptation responses. Taking steps to increase the collective efficacy beliefs of community members—for example, through mass media campaigns—may strengthen the adaptive capacity of communities to climate change; this important possibility should be tested in future research.

Authors

• Jagadish J Thaker, Massey University

• Edward Maibach, George Mason U

• Anthony Leiserowitz, Yale U

• Xiaoquan Zhao, George Mason U

• Peter D Howe, Utah State U