In this research, we document knowledge gaps between consumers and experts about what consumer actions most effectively help mitigate climate change. We then identify three sources for lack of consumer knowledge on greenhouse gas emissions associated with consumption: carbon emissions labeling, awareness of indirect versus direct emissions, and orders of magnitude differences in carbon intensity across behaviors. We further propose that this lack of knowledge and several cognitive and motivational biases lead consumers away from effective climate actions, including the tendency to focus on first- versus second-order effects of “green” behaviors, motivated reasoning that easier, more accessible actions are more impactful, and a focus on individual behavior versus systemic changes. We close with a research agenda designed to address the lack of knowledge and biases we identify, while acknowledging that shifting marketers and consumers to focus on systemic changes may be both most challenging and most impactful.

在这项研究中，我们记录了消费者和专家之间关于哪些消费者行为最有效地有助于缓解气候变化的知识差距。然后，我们确定了消费者对与消费相关的温室气体排放缺乏了解的三个原因：碳排放标签、对间接排放与直接排放的认识以及不同行为的碳强度的数量级差异。我们进一步提出，这种知识的缺乏以及一些认知和动机偏见导致消费者远离有效的气候行动，包括倾向于关注“绿色”行为的一阶效应与二阶效应，动机推理认为更容易、更容易采取的行动是更具影响力，并关注个人行为而不是系统性变化。我们结束了一项研究议程，旨在解决我们发现的知识缺乏和偏见问题，同时承认让营销人员和消费者关注系统性变革可能是最具挑战性和最有影响力的。