IT IS a selfish world, so if you want people to about care about climate change, make sure their efforts are appreciated.
That is the conclusion of games organised by Jochem Marotzke of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, and his colleagues. They gave 154 undergraduates 鈧�12 each and asked them to donate none, some, or all of it to a climate change cause. The students could keep any money left over and were told that the donations would be used for a real advertisement about climate change.
The students gave more when their identities were made public, and other participants were allowed to reward them for their contribution (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0504902103).
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This suggests that people may be more willing, for instance, to install solar panels on their roofs 鈥� a visible sign of their intent 鈥� than accept taxes to fight climate change, which does not enhance their reputation directly.
