A value-based topography of climate change beliefs and behaviors

Abstract

While research has documented clear regional differences in environmental attitudes and behaviors, less is understood about the role of shared moral values in shaping these variations. This gap poses a critical challenge to designing effective climate action strategies. Many environmental initiatives rely on “moral framing” to promote proenvironmental behavior, often targeting specific geographical areas like cities or counties. However, these strategies may falter if they fail to account for the unique moral landscapes that shape climate beliefs and actions in different regions. To maximize the success of these interventions, it is crucial to understand how collective moral values influence environmental engagement across diverse communities. Across two studies, we offer insights at the collective level into the moral psychology of climate change by investigating how county-level moral values can predict (i) green attitudes and (ii) household carbon emissions within those counties after accounting for political behavior and region-specific factors. Using Bayesian geospatial modeling, we find that counties that endorse purity and fairness show higher environmental concerns and lower emissions across 3,102 US counties in 48 states. While political orientation strongly predicts environmental attitudes, moral values appear to be a more important factor in predicting carbon footprints. We discuss how county-level dynamics deviate from individual-level dynamics. Our community-level evidence can be leveraged to enhance green interventions on a regional scale by aligning them with the local populace’s prevailing values and lived experiences, thus bolstering public support and increasing the likelihood of successful climate action initiatives.

Significance Statement: Our research enhances understanding of climate action by examining the influence of moral norms on green attitudes and household carbon footprints (HCFs) at the county level across the United States. Using Bayesian geospatial modeling, we demonstrate that moral norms uniquely predict green attitudes and HCFs, controlling for diverse factors from political behavior to temperature anomalies and population density. Counties where purity and fairness norms are prevalent show higher environmental concern and lower emissions, while those where authority norms dominate tend to have higher emissions and less green engagement. These findings highlight the complex, spatially varying relationship between moral values and climate action, emphasizing the need for tailored, evidence-based interventions at the community level.

Citation

​Karimi-Malekabadi, Farzan; Sachdeva, Sonya; Dehghani, Morteza. 2025. A value-based topography of climate change beliefs and behaviors. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus. 4(2): pgae590. 9 p. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae590.