Many projects require individuals to sustain an effort through an extended period of time. Studies show that people tend to invest higher levels of effort at the beginning and end of the task. Some have posited that this can be impacted based on whether or not one measures success by distance from the initial state or distance from the desired end state. In other words, if you're marking how far you've come, you might have a different attitude than if you're marking how far you've yet to go.

For those acting on social issues, like climate change policy, action on the issue is correlative to a positive attitude about the likelihood of change. So, those who don't believe change is possible don't tend to act in ways that would bring about any meaningful change, whether or not they'd like to see it. People who believe that other people are acting upon issues they care about also tend to have more confidence in not only collective efforts, but individual ones.

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