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Correcting Consumer Misperceptions about CO2 Emissions

Taisuke Imai et al.

Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists2026https://doi.org/10.1086/741602article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Policy makers frequently champion information provision about carbon impact on the premise that consumers are willing to mitigate their emissions but are poorly informed about how to do so. We empirically test this argument and reject it. We collect an extensive new dataset and find both large misperceptions of the carbon impact of different consumption behaviors and clear preferences for mitigation. Yet, in two separate experiments, we show that correcting beliefs has no effect on consumption in large representative samples. Our null results are well-powered and informative, as we target information for maximal impact. These results call into question the potential of correcting carbon footprint misperceptions as a tool to fight climate change.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/741602

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@article{taisuke2026,
  title        = {{Correcting Consumer Misperceptions about CO2 Emissions}},
  author       = {Taisuke Imai et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/741602},
}

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Correcting Consumer Misperceptions about CO2 Emissions

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.