Exploring the effects of knowledge on behavioural change

It is a common belief that knowledge about climate change is not enough for generating people's behavioural response - this has been confirmed by surveys that report a widespread awareness of climate change and even a certain degree of self-reported knowledge, but a limited behavioural response. Yet, surveys that went more in-depth in the investigation of people's knowledge about climate change issue, revealed a quite poor understanding of some basic climate dynamics. The aim of this study was to challenge this claim: we designed some teaching material focused on both causal dynamics of climate change and data regarding the environmental impact of a single individual's daily activities (e.g. food, transport, energy consumption). We delivered this teaching material during an intensive course intended for upper secondary school students, and we investigated the effects of it. We gave students two questionnaires, one before and one after the course to see whether any changes in knowledge were made, and how knowledge related to their behaviour. The data we gathered suggest that knowledge and behaviour are somewhat related, and that the more students understand about climate change causes, the more they are likely to take action.