Beyond the Polar Bear: An Information Processing Approach to Climate Change Communication

Climate communication has been a perfect storm of challenges due to its complex science, abstractness, temporally and spatially distal consequences, and being a battleground of competing social identities. There has been much need for effective climate change communication mounting over the recent years yet little is known about how the messages are processed in the human emotional and cognitive system. This study is one of the first to bring in an information processing approach, aiming to examine the message features that are motivationally relevant to engage the audience, applying the Limited Capacity of Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP). A series of experiments was conducted to test the effects of message valence (positive, negative) and psychological distance (distal, proximal) on viewer engagement (arousal, attention, memory) along with attitudes, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions toward climate action. Results showed the power of negative valence and psychological proximity. While the negative-proximal messages successfully engaged the viewers, reducing the psychological distance critically mattered in motivating action for individual decarbonization. Individuals’ negativity bias levels also affected the effects of valence and distance; higher negativity bias enhanced the effects of negative valence and psychological proximity. The message processing mechanism and practical implications are discussed.