New Scientist reports on the psychology of climate change, and references a couple of papers on the subject.

Bottom lines from this:

1/ Psychology can help how we sell the message that change is needed, and that change is good.
2/ Messages need to be tailored to the interests of individual groups
3/ 'Fitting in with the crowd' is powerful. So working with others to conserve resources works.
4/ Having information about your own consumption is really important, as are comparisons with others, but look out for data that shows people use less than their peers, which may encourage more usage.

Some quotes:

In one experiment, the researchers left information with households in San Marcos asking them to use fans rather than air conditioners at night, turn off lights and take shorter showers. Some messages simply stressed energy conservation, some talked about future generations, while others emphasised the financial savings. But it was the flyers that implored residents to join with their neighbours in saving energy that were most effective in cutting electricity consumption (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol 34, p 913).

...

MOST people seem to conserve energy if provided with real-time feedback on how much they are using. But feedback can be too immediate.

...

Studies show that devices that display domestic energy usage produce savings of between 5 and 12 per cent.

Lots of useful info and links to the actual papers at newscientist.com