Abstract
Climate policy in high-income countries disproportionately prioritizes supply- over demand-side solutions requiring citizen behavior change. This skew partly reflects policymakers’ skepticism about citizens’ readiness and capacity for behavior change. Yet, it remains unclear whether this skepticism reflects actual conditions for demand-side engagement, how climate-relevant perceptions interrelate, and which factors predict perceived feasibility of changing high-impact behaviors. We address these questions using a nationally representative survey of 2,005 adults in Denmark—a high-income, climate-progressive country where supply-side solutions dominate despite ambitious mitigation targets. We map climate-relevant perceptions using network analysis and estimate associations with perceived behavioral plasticity across eight high-impact behaviors using Bayesian ordinal regression. The Danish public is highly concerned about climate change and expresses a strong personal responsibility for mitigation. Perceived behavioral plasticity closely tracked perceived (but not objective) climate footprints of behaviors. Carbon footprint literacy was low: participants overestimated footprints of low-impact behaviors (e.g., waste sorting) and underestimated high-impact ones (e.g., dietary change). Network analysis revealed a dense interconnected system with personal responsibility as the most central node; perceived behavioral plasticity clustered with measured psychological factors, suggesting a mutually reinforcing system. Regression models indicate that personal responsibility, climate change concern, perceived behavioral impact, and social norms consistently relate to the plasticity of eight impactful climate-relevant behaviors; higher-income households reported lower plasticity of several behaviors. Together, these findings challenge the dismissal of demand-side solutions. Psychological conditions for behavioral engagement are favorable; realizing this potential requires pairing communication strategies that strengthen norms and correct misperceptions of behavioral impact with structural policies that make high-impact change affordable and accessible.