Pro-social behavior is required for collective welfare and collective action.

People want to be pro-social; they just need the occasional reminder.

Climate change is, perhaps, the most challenging collective action problem of our time.

When we, as individuals, encounter situations where we will be made worse off than others, we perceive relative deprivation. And yet, in many such situations, individuals are willing to sacrifice for collective well-being. This is a particularly relevant phenomenon when discussing macroeconomic challenges, such as climate change and public health. How do individuals decide when collective well-being is more important than their perceived relative deprivation? And how can communities organize with the understanding of the limitations of individual willingness to sacrifice?

What would it look like to minimize perceived relative deprivation and maximize collective well-being in the context of addressing climate change? To explore this question, I reached out to Leaf Van Boven, a researcher and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the director of the Environment, Decision, Judgment, and Identity Lab (EDJI)........

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