Resumen
Social learning, a key factor in fostering behavioural change and improving decision making, is considered necessary for achieving substantial CO2 emission reductions. However, no empirical evidence exists on how it contributes to mitigation of transport CO2 emissions, or the extent of its influence on decision making. This paper presents evidence addressing these knowledge gaps. Social learning-oriented workshops were conducted to gather the views and preferences of participants from the general public in Bahrain on selected transport CO2 mitigation measures. Social preferences were inputted into a deliberative decision-making model and then compared to a previously prepared participative model. An analysis of the results revealed that social learning could contribute to changes in views, preferences and acceptance regarding mitigation measures, and these changes were statistically significant at an alpha level of 0.1. Thus, while social learning evidently plays an important role in the decision-making process, the impacts of using other participatory techniques should also be explored.