| Persuasion research has found that messages aimed at engendering concern for environmental issues like global climate change (GCC), unlike many other topics, are less effective when appealing to an individual's sense of fear. However, because environmental hazards have several characteristics that differentiate them from GCC, these findings may not generalize to all environmental subjects. Furthermore, although most previous studies have measured the effect of vignettes on changing explicit attitudes towards the environment, with the goal to increase pro-environmental actions, implicit attitudes may be a better predictor of engaging pro-environmental behaviors. The present study was designed to test whether "fearful" or "iconic" vignettes are more effective in changing both explicit and implicit attitudes, how these changes relate to intended pro-environmental activism and, based on previous findings regarding general environmental concern, which individual difference factors may affect attitude change. |
