In this study, more than 3,000 participants completed an effort-based decision-making task designed to understand what motivates people to exert physical effort for climate-benefitting actions. We tested 11 psychological interventions and applied computational modelling to uncover the mechanisms behind pro-environmental decision-making.

Key findings include:

• People were generally less willing to exert effort for climate benefits compared to an equally effortful food-relief cause—highlighting an important motivational gap.

• Several psychological interventions effectively increased willingness to exert effort for the climate.
  Notably, interventions that reduced psychological distance and challenged system justification led to higher motivation to choose climate-helping actions.

• Motivation to take climate action was strongly linked to belief in human-caused climate change and support for pro-environmental policies.

This work provides new insights into how psychological tools can meaningfully increase climate-relevant action—especially when those actions require effort.

Read the full paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s44271-025-00332-4

Cutler, J., Contreras-Huerta, L. S., Todorova, B., Nitschke, J., Michalaki, K., Koppel, L., Gkinopoulos, T., Vogel, T. A., Lamm, C., Västfjäll, D., Tsakiris, M., Apps, M. A. J. & Lockwood, P. L. (2025). Psychological interventions that decrease psychological distance or challenge system justification increase motivation to exert effort to mitigate climate change. Communications Psychology, 3(1), 148. doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00332-4