Renewable Energy
Americans agree on renewables.
They disagree on why.
Large majorities of both parties support a transition to renewable energy, but their reasons differ, and so do the messages that move them. We study what drives support, which frames work across the aisle, and how long persuasion actually lasts.
Executive Summary
The essential data and strategy from across our studies, all on one page. Read it in five minutes & download the PDF.
Latest data & strategy
Using moral appeals doesn't add a persuasive boost.
Four videos about the harms of fossil fuels all raised support for renewables and held for three weeks. Adding explicit moral claims changed nothing.
How can 1,000 people tell us what the whole nation thinks?
Why a well-conducted survey of 1,000 people reliably captures the opinions of an entire country.
How to communicate uncertainties without losing credibility
When acknowledging uncertainty helps your message — and the situations where it backfires.
Three overlooked factors in communication strategy
The Reach × Effect tradeoff, the Immediate Effects Bias, and the Zero Resistance Fallacy — and how to avoid all three.
Polar bears, politics, and apocalypse: the 3 big problems in climate communication
Climate change has been sold as distant, partisan, and hopeless. Why each framing backfires, and what to say instead.
What Americans think about renewables, and why it matters for the energy transition
Where support stands, why it is splitting along party lines, and how much more people say they would pay for renewable electricity. An XandY Insights summary.
The most effective ways to persuade people to make sustainable choices
A meta-analysis of 430 field studies: social norms and incentives move behavior most, education least, and the easiest behaviors to change matter least for the climate.
Saving money is the renewable energy message angle that works on everyone.
A three-week experiment found the cost-savings frame beat the jobs and climate frames for both parties, with about half the effect still there three weeks later.
Call it "natural gas" and people like it. Call it "methane" and they don't.
Our experiment showed that peoples sentiment toward natural gas depends largely on what we call it.
Both American political parties want renewable energy. But for different reasons.
Republicans' support runs on costs and the economy; Democrats' runs on global warming. A national survey maps the stated reasons and the beliefs that predict support.