Glossary topic · 26 terms
People & participation.
Why people act, why they stop and what makes taking part feel worth it again.
Behaviour change
A change in what people do, influenced by capabilities, opportunities and motivations.
People & participationBystander effect
The tendency for each person to be less likely to help when others who could also act are present.
People & participationCitizen participation
Involvement of members of the public in decisions that affect them.
People & participationClimate agency
The capacity to make choices and take actions that influence climate-related outcomes.
People & participationClimate anxiety
Distress or worry associated with climate change and its consequences.
People & participationClimate fatalism
The belief that damaging climate outcomes are inevitable or that action cannot alter them.
People & participationClimate fatigue
A commonly used description of weariness or disengagement around repeated climate messages or demands.
People & participationClimate literacy
Understanding climate processes, human influences and the options for responding.
People & participationCollective action
Coordinated activity by people working towards a shared objective.
People & participationCollective efficacy
A group's belief that its joint effort can achieve a desired outcome.
People & participationCommunity energy
Energy activity organised with meaningful community participation, ownership or benefit.
People & participationConstructive hope
Hope grounded in an honest view of a problem together with a realistic sense of what people can do about it.
People & participationDiffusion of responsibility
The weakening of each person's sense of duty to act when responsibility is shared across a large group.
People & participationEmployee engagement
Employees' involvement and connection with workplace activities or goals.
People & participationEnvironmental stewardship
Responsible care for the natural environment through decisions and practice.
People & participationInformed consent
A freely made decision based on adequate understanding of the relevant information.
People & participationLearned helplessness
A pattern in which repeated experience of having no control leads people to stop trying, even after options for action appear.
People & participationMoral licensing
A tendency to feel freer to act less responsibly after doing something seen as virtuous.
People & participationPluralistic ignorance
A situation in which people misjudge others' private views and therefore misunderstand the group's position.
People & participationSelf-efficacy
A person's belief in their own ability to carry out a particular action successfully.
People & participationSocial norm
A shared expectation about behaviour within a group.
People & participationSocial proof
The tendency to look to what other people do when deciding how to act, particularly in unfamiliar situations.
People & participationSocial tipping point
A threshold beyond which a behaviour, technology or norm spreads quickly through a society after a period of slow uptake.
People & participationStakeholder
A person or group that affects, is affected by or has an interest in a decision or activity.
People & participationTragedy of the commons
The depletion of a shared resource when each user gains from taking more while the damage is spread across everyone.
People & participationValue-action gap
The distance between the environmental values people report and the actions they take in daily life.