Table 1 Description of the predictors included in each of the models

Demographics

Age

Demographics have been identified as relevant factors for some climate-relevant outcomes in the literature, albeit with generally small effect sizes^2,3. These findings can be useful for selecting groups that should be particularly targeted with communication and intervention strategies.

Gender^a

Education

Political orientation

Income

MacArthur's subjective social status

Psychological antecedents

Trust in climate science/ scientists

As climate risks are not always directly experienced, trusting experts is important to evaluate these risks and act accordingly. Research has shown that trust in climate scientists relates to different types of pro-environmental behaviors^64,65.

Trust in government

Governments have a crucial role in addressing climate change by managing risks, implementing policies, and fairly managing revenues from climate policies, making trust in governments a potentially relevant factor. It has been shown to correlate more strongly with public climate-relevant behaviors than private⁶⁵.

Environmentalist identity

Social identity theory suggests people’s behavior is shaped by the social groups with which they identify (i.e., environmentalists, humanitarians, or global citizens), and the degree of this identification should relate to both public and private environmental action^37,38,39,51.

Humanitarian identity

Global citizen identity

Environmental motivation: internal

According to self-determination theory, there are two main types of motivation driving our behavior - intrinsic and extrinsic⁵² - potentially having differential impacts on people’s behavior.

Environmental motivation: external

Perceived scientific consensus on climate change

The role of perceived scientific consensus has been identified as crucial, and misperceptions of scientific consensus have been associated with reduced levels of support for climate policies^66,67.

Perceived climate change belief in own country

The perceived belief in climate change of others is a measure of descriptive social norms, identified as crucial for behavior by multiple theories in social psychology (e.g., social identity theory⁶⁸, value-belief-norm theory⁶⁹). People underestimate the prevalence of pro-climate views of others^70,71, which can be a barrier to climate change mitigation⁷².

Nation level

GINI coefficient

The GINI coefficient is a nation-level measure of income inequality. Inequality has been shown to fuel emission-intensive consumption and production and enable wealthy elites to obstruct climate policies⁷³.

Human Development Index (HDI)

HDI is a metric of development combining GDP per capita, education levels, and life expectancy. The more economically developed a nation, the less likely they are to show climate change concern⁵⁰ and to invest part of their income to mitigate climate change⁴.

Climate risk index

There is mixed evidence that personal experience with extreme weather can engage people with climate. Some papers suggest extreme weather events such as floods can increase belief in climate change⁷⁴ while others say there is no relationship⁷⁵.

Carbon emissions per capita

People from countries relying heavily on fossil fuels are less willing to acknowledge the risk of climate change¹², and research has shown an association between climate skepticism and carbon emissions.