Behaviour change has great potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly, helping to prevent dangerous global warming. However, these changes have proved elusive at scale and are rarely encouraged or modeled by high-status individuals. This pre-registered survey experiment (n=1267) reveals that visible leading by example from politicians and celebrities significantly increases the public's willingness to make high-impact low-carbon choices and enhances perceptions of leader credibility. The study finds no significant effects on wider perceptions of climate change but reveals a strong "appetite for leadership" among the public. Embodied leadership through visible low-carbon behavior from leaders may provide a crucial "missing link" for climate change mitigation.

Steve Westlake, Christina Demski, Nick Pidgeon