Domino Effects in the Earth System -- The role of wanted social tipping dynamics

Social tipping processes have been identified as potential mechanisms for instigating necessary socio-technical transformations to avoid or mitigate disastrous climate futures. The dynamics of tipping processes converge and diverge between social and the related climate systems. But, the coupling of social and climate systems remains comparatively underdefined. Here we explore how [anticipated] changes to climate systems can instigate necessary positive transformations within social systems - the wanted tipping points. Adopting novel survey data from the United States, we investigate how sea-level rise (SLR) risk perceptions shape climate change relevant behavioral intentions and policies. We find that SLR risk perceptions are strongly, positively related to a diverse set of behavioral and policy measures under analysis in this study. Furthermore, we find that SLR perceptions are one of the strongest drivers towards these climate change behavioral intentions, comparatively stronger than many other common individual-level determinants (e.g. political attitudes, forms of trust). These findings emphasize the potential role of SLR perceptions as instigators of social tipping dynamics. Heightened risk perceptions could be influential in transcending the temporal barriers presented by the necessity for contemporary socio-technical transformations to mitigate future climate impacts - serving as a normatively desirable trigger of positive [wanted] social tipping dynamics.