Exposure to Climate Change Information on Affect and Pro-Environmental Behavioural Intentions: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Greaves, Samantha; Harvey, Caroline; Kotera, Yasuhiro

Abstract

Climate change and its impact are being acknowledged through extensive media coverage. Knowledge gaps between mental health and climate change have been highlighted, which is an increasingly prevalent issue. Furthermore, mental health impacts such as climate anxiety and its implications on behaviour remain unclear. The study aimed to investigate the effect of climate change exposure on affect and pro-environmental behavioural intentions in a randomised controlled trial. An online survey was completed by 100 adult participants and included measures of affect and pro-environmental behavioural intentions pre- and post-exposure. Participants were randomly allocated to a group that saw a climate change video (n = 55) or a group that saw a non-climate change video (n = 45). The findings were that participants in the climate change group showed a significant increase in negative affect and pro-environmental behavioural intention scores post-video exposure compared to the non-climate change video group. This suggests that climate change video exposure negatively influences affect but also potentially increases the intention to act pro-environmentally. These findings have the potential to support policies and societal change; however, further investigation into the type of contents, actual behaviour change, and impacts on diverse populations (e.g., minority groups) is needed.

Citation

Greaves, S., Harvey, C., & Kotera, Y. (2023). Exposure to Climate Change Information on Affect and Pro-Environmental Behavioural Intentions: A Randomised Controlled Trial. Earth, 4(4), 845-858. https://doi.org/10.3390/earth4040045

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 14, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Dec 18, 2023
• Publication Date: Dec 18, 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 22, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 2, 2024
• Journal: Earth
• Electronic ISSN: 2673-4834
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 845-858
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/earth4040045
• Keywords: climate change; positive and negative affect; pro-environmental behavioural intentions; climate anxiety
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/28716911
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4834/4/4/45
• Additional Information: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).