Warm glow feelings can promote green behavior

For climate mitigation to be successful, vast numbers of people must change how they go about daily life. Social scientists have tried to promote environmentally sustainable (i.e. "green") behavior with interventions involving cues, frames, and information, but the cumulative impact of those efforts has been modest. A growing number of studies-largely observational-suggests the promise of "warm glow" messaging that features the pleasure and satisfaction one experiences from acting sustainably. While past work has established the association between intrinsic motivations and green behavior, our study offers evidence regarding the causal effect of warm glow feelings in the climate domain. In three survey experiments administered on different national samples, we induce feelings of warm glow and examine the impact on green behavioral intentions. The treatment, an adaptation of a standard feeling induction, has a significant influence on a wide range of actions-an effect that is distinct from the influence of general positivity. Most importantly, we observe the largest treatment effects in surprising places: among Republicans, and within this subgroup, on more socially visible activities. Manipulated warm glow also increases intentions to engage in more difficult (e.g. costly, effortful) activities. Our findings are valuable for scholars and practitioners seeking to promote broad-based climate mitigation across the ideological spectrum.