Conversations about environmental issues can focus on individual-level change or system-level change.

Individual-level change has to do with people’s practices and behaviors, like, for example, a person choosing not to buy single-use plastic products.

System-level change involves broad change in policies, societal practices, norms and mindsets, for example, a government passing a law that bans the production of single-use plastic products.

We found that people prefer discussing system-level change over individual-level change when talking about environmental issues. People generally perceive talking about system-level changes as more useful for addressing the climate crisis, which makes them more likely to talk about it.

Many respondents also recognized individual-level change as integral to wider system-level change, viewing both types of change as interconnected and supportive, and therefore seeing the benefit in also discussing individual-level changes.

Our research suggests that policy interventions should steer discussions towards how individuals can drive systemic change, as this makes it more likely for people to engage.

Find this paper by Žan Mlakar, Tabea Hoffmann, Ward Rauws and Jan Willem Bolderdijk – along with all of our most recent research – on our publications page!