"System change not climate change": Effective environmental policies and state repression moderates the relationship between psychological predictors and environmental collective action

Social psychological research on environmental collective action often overlooks the facilitating or hindering impact of a country's context. Governments' institutional attitudes toward environmental issues may have crucial roles in mobilizing environmental activism. To explore how individual and contextual factors interplay for engagement in environmental collective action, we conducted multilevel modelling using data from 12 countries (n = 18,746). While environmental collective action was predicted by higher environmental concern and higher environmental efficacy beliefs, the strength of these relationships was moderated by macro-level contextual variables related to political governance. In countries with more effective environmental policies, the impact of both environmental concern and environmental efficacy beliefs on collective action were much stronger than in the countries with inadequate environmental governance. Moreover, our findings show that environmental concern is less likely to translate into environmental collective action in repressive countries. Findings are discussed within perspectives on community resilience, identity, empowerment, and repression.