A Large Experimental Test of the Effectiveness of Highly Cited Climate Change Messaging Strategies

• In Event: 41011 - Experimental Examinations of Social Psychological Processes

Abstract

Climate change is a global threat to human well-being, making the identification of effective ways to communicate with the public about climate change a critical area of social science research. However, results of five original pilot studies (N=3,216) questioned the robustness of widely-cited climate change messaging strategies, potentially because the original findings were false positives or because psychological underpinnings of climate change attitudes shifted. Further, no prior research examined the relative effectiveness of these messaging strategies. To fill these gaps, we conducted an experiment on a large, national sample (N=13,000), to assess the effects of the ten most cited climate change messaging strategies on belief in climate change, climate change concern, support for mitigation policies, and political behavioral intentions. Our findings indicate that the tested climate change messages had many significant effects on pro-environmental attitudes and/or behavioral intentions. However, effects were small in size and similar across different messaging strategies. Notably, there were few differences in message effectiveness across political party lines, questioning the unique appeal of the messaging strategies for Republicans. Furthermore, our analyses suggest that messaging strategies manipulate several concepts, complicating theoretical inferences. Our results highlight the challenge of deriving clear theoretical insights to explain when messaging approaches are most persuasive.

Authors

• Jan Gerrit Voelkel, Cornell University

• Ashwini Ashokkumar

• Neil Malhotra

• Jane Willenbring

• Robb Willer, Stanford Universty