>Among participants who used social media, willingness to share climate change information on these platforms generally increased in response to all interventions tested. Notably, the largest gains occurred after participants read facts about the negative impacts of climate change—a “gloom and doom” style of messaging. After hearing these messages, participants were 12% more likely to share pro-environmental messages on social media.
>Conversely, no intervention increased support for the tested action: a tree-planting initiative. In fact, some interventions decreased the likelihood of expressing willingness to undertake this individual-level action.
>Taken together, the findings shed new light on the effectiveness of climate messaging. Some activists have argued in favor of a “doom-and-gloom” messaging style as a way to encourage action. Others, however, have said that such messaging may have no impact on behavior, or worse, that it may depress and demoralize the public into inaction.
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>Among participants who used social media, willingness to share climate change information on these platforms generally increased in response to all interventions tested. Notably, the largest gains occurred after participants read facts about the negative impacts of climate change—a “gloom and doom” style of messaging. After hearing these messages, participants were 12% more likely to share pro-environmental messages on social media.
>Conversely, no intervention increased support for the tested action: a tree-planting initiative. In fact, some interventions decreased the likelihood of expressing willingness to undertake this individual-level action.
>Taken together, the findings shed new light on the effectiveness of climate messaging. Some activists have argued in favor of a “doom-and-gloom” messaging style as a way to encourage action. Others, however, have said that such messaging may have no impact on behavior, or worse, that it may depress and demoralize the public into inaction.