The 89% project Climate action is popular. Why don't most people realise it?

The Guardian is joining forces with dozens of newsrooms to highlight the fact that the vast majority of the world's population wants climate action.

- By Damian Carrington

How much of a $450 pot would you give to a charity that cuts carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy, and how much would you keep for yourself?

That was the question posed in a recent academic experiment. The answers mattered: real money was handed out as a result to some randomly chosen participants.

The average person gave away about half the money and kept the rest. But what if you had been told beforehand that the vast majority of other people think climate action is really important? Might you have given more to the charity?

That is what a second experiment tested. Before dividing the cash, these participants were told that 79% of people thought citizens should try to fight the climate crisis. This mattered, because in earlier questions people had significantly underestimated the proportion at just 61%. Being informed about the true level of support boosted the donations by $16 for each person.

The experiment was in the US, but the illusion that climate action is not popular is global. So imagine dispelling that myth: such a shift, experts say, could be a gamechanger, pushing the world over a social tipping point into unstoppable climate progress.

Such a communication campaign, low-cost and scalable, could be among the most powerful tools available to fight the climate crisis, they say. Decades of psychological research indicate that correcting such misunderstandings can change people's views across a swathe of issues, from participating in protests to voting for Donald Trump.

"We're sitting on an enormous potential climate movement," said Prof Anthony Leiserowitz, at Yale University in the US. "It hasn't been activated or catalysed. But when you break through these perception gaps, you help people understand that they're not alone and there is in fact a global movement."