Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions’ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior—several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people’s initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.

Climate change is currently one of humanity’s greatest threats. To help scholars understand the psychology of climate change, we conducted an online quasi-experimental survey on 59,508 participants from 63 countries (collected between July 2022 and July 2023). In a between-subjects design, we tested 11 interventions designed to promote climate change mitigation across four outcomes: climate change belief, support for climate policies, willingness to share information on social media, and performance on an effortful pro-environmental behavioural task. Participants also reported their demographic information (e.g., age, gender) and several other independent variables (e.g., political orientation, perceptions about the scientific consensus). In the no-intervention control group, we also measured important additional variables, such as environmentalist identity and trust in climate science. We report the collaboration procedure, study design, raw and cleaned data, all survey materials, relevant analysis scripts, and data visualisations. This dataset can be used to further the understanding of psychological, demographic, and national-level factors related to individual-level climate action and how these differ across countries.

COVID-19 has spread around the world, causing a global pandemic, and to date is impacting in various ways in both developed and developing countries. We know that the spread of this virus is through people’s behavior despite the perceived risks. Risk perception plays an important role in decision-making to prevent infection. Using data from the online survey of participants in Peru and China (N = 1594), data were collected between 8 July 31 and August 2020. We found that levels of risk perception are relatively moderate, but higher in Peru compared to China. In both countries, anxiety, threat perception, self-confidence, and sex were found to be significant predictors of risk perception; however, trust in the information received by government and experts was significant only in Peru, whereas self-confidence had a significant negative effect only for China. Risk communication should be implemented through information programs aimed at reducing anxiety and improving self-confidence, taking into consideration gender differences. In addition, the information generated by the government should be based on empirical sources. Finally, the implications for effective risk communication and its impacts on the health field are discussed.

Air pollution is a growing environmental and public health concern, particularly in urban areas where vehicular emissions, industrial activities, and public events contribute to deteriorating air quality. This study examines air pollution concentrations in two districts of Cusco, Peru, using an interdisciplinary approach that integrates environmental monitoring and social risk perception analysis. Air quality measurements revealed elevated levels of PM2.5 and NO₂, with 40–60% of data falling within “Moderate” or “Unhealthy for sensitive groups” categories according to international standards. Notably, major cultural events such as Inti Raymi were associated with a threefold increase in pollutant concentrations, highlighting their impact on urban air quality. Simultaneously, surveys and interviews assessed public perception, revealing a varied understanding of pollution risks and a general concern for health impacts, especially in more polluted and densely populated areas. However, trust in scientists remains limited, which poses challenges for the implementation of evidence-based environmental strategies. This study highlights significant environmental inequality within the city, with central districts facing greater pollution burdens than peripheral zones. These findings underscore the need for holistic air quality management strategies that combine scientific assessments with community engagement. Strengthening trust between scientists and local populations is essential to develop inclusive and effective interventions that align with both technical and social priorities, particularly in rapidly urbanizing contexts such as Cusco.

In recent decades, the mountains of Latin America have undergone massive rural–urban change. In Peru, this has led to strong growth of population and settlement on the spatially limited valley floors of the Quechua elevational zone, which is part of a sophisticated vertical land use system that includes the adjacent slopes (Suni elevational zone) and high plains (Puna elevational zone). Periurban villagers not only benefit from this rural–urban change, but also bear its negative social and environmental consequences. Future-oriented mountain development in highland Peru could benefit from detecting and understanding the perceived impacts and preferred performance of rural–urban change in periurban villages. In an effort to do so, this study used structured, computer-assisted personal interviews with closed questions, complemented by informal talks, in 2 case study villages near the intermediate cities of Cusco (Huatanay Valley) and Huaraz (Santa Valley): Oropesa and Taricá. The responses of 420 interviewees, selected through nonprobability quota sampling, confirm negative impacts known from comparable studies. However, these perceptions do not lead to a negative overall assessment of rural–urban change. This supposed contradiction becomes easier to understand when considering the periurban villagers' preferred performance of future developments, which point in particular at the desire to preserve cropland and woodland on the valley floor, while, at the same time, making greater use of the high plains as settlement areas. Given these views, performance-based management of rural–urban change could potentially lead the way to a socially inclusive and environmentally balanced development and help in overcoming rural–urban dichotomies in highland Peru.

Air pollution is a risk factor associated with various adverse effects on physical and mental health. The aim of the present study was to predict whether the perception of green areas, trust in scientists and climate anxiety have an impact on the perception of the effects of air pollution on health (PAPH). Our sample was composed of communities of populated hills in Peru N = 1088. We used the survey method, a non-probabilistic sampling design by quotas and face-to-face interviews. The results show that the variables analyzed have a significant positive impact, explaining 26% of the PAPH variance. Gender, age, educational level, perception of green spaces, trust in scientists and climate anxiety were identified as significant predictors. Climate anxiety was a variable that explained more of the variance compared to sociodemographics, perception of green spaces and trust in scientists. The main findings are discussed and highlight the importance of emotional factors in air pollution risk perception and their implications for policy and communication strategies to tackle environmental threats such as air pollution and health effects.