Climate campaigns that are designed to appeal to people’s emotions are more effective than those that primarily present scientific information, new research from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has suggested.
According to the research, which was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, messages emphasising individual and collective responsibility ‘appear to have little or no effect’, while messages designed to evoke emotions proved to have a lasting impact.
The researchers analysed findings from 71 studies involving 216,000 participants to assess the impact of different approaches to climate communication. Some 15 different marketing approaches were assessed, including those that rely on factual information, filling knowledge gaps, health and financial consequences, and appeals to emotions.
Positive effect
“Our research shows that almost all of these strategies are likely to have a positive effect on people’s intentions and behaviours, as well as on their support for climate policies,” commented Tobias Brosch, director of UNIGE’s Consumer Decision and Sustainable Behavior Lab.
“Only strategies based on individual and collective responsibility – with messages such as ‘success depends largely on you’ – appear to have little or no effect. They may even foster reactance.”
‘Sense of wonder’
As the researchers found, emotional storytelling and messages intended to create a ‘sense of wonder at the natural environment’ were among the approaches associated with stronger results. Messages that drew on moral, ethical or religious considerations also performed strongly.
“Despite these differences, the fact that almost all of these strategies can have a positive effect is encouraging,” Brosch added. “This is particularly encouraging given that the studies reviewed mainly measured the effects of messages to which people were exposed only once.
“Yet we know that repeated exposure can strengthen their impact. At a time when the scientific evidence is well established and the challenge is to turn knowledge into action, there is considerable scope to improve climate communication.”c
The study, entitled A systematic review and meta-analysis of communication strategies to promote climate action, was led by Brosch alongside postdoctoral researcher Mario Herberz. Read more here and here.
