Planting the Future: Fostering Collective Engagement With the Energy Transition by Coordinated Action

ABSTRACT

Collective pro‐environmental engagement of communities is vital for addressing climate change challenges. To promote such engagement, individuals must go beyond their immediate personal interests, requiring the activation of a collective mindset. In the present research, we tested whether working on a simple task in high vs. low coordination would increase collective agency for the task and beyond. In a series of three studies (total N  = 245), including one preregistered field experiment, we tested whether collaboration on a plant potting task in high vs. low coordination would boost collective agency (comprising efficacy, motivation, and responsibility) with the task and pro‐environmental behaviour more generally. Across all three studies, we find that plant potting in high coordination promotes collective agency (but not individual agency) for the plant potting task. In the field study with community residents from existing groups we also find higher collective agency for contributing to a sustainable neighbourhood more generally as a result of coordinated plant potting. We do not find other spillover effects of coordinated plant potting in terms of intentions for participating in future sustainable activities. All in all, we conclude that working together in coordination may provide a powerful route for encouraging engagement with collective pro‐environmental action in real world settings.