Plastic Pollution in the Ocean: The Impacts of Visual Information and Text on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Expected Behaviours

An experiment is conducted using an internet-based survey about the problem of plastic pollution in oceans. Treatment groups consist of respondents viewing an underwater photograph illustrating plastic pollution in oceans and/or reading a one-sentence description of the magnitude of the problem. Treatment effects are estimated for a variety of attitude and belief measures as well as for respondents’ expectations about how their own and others’ behaviours will be affected. Results support the external validity of previous estimates as well as providing new insights. For the sample as a whole, estimated effects on expected behaviours are more significant than estimated effects on underlying beliefs and attitudes. Though there are few statistically significant effects on belief and attitude measures, each treatment does result in some statistically significant effects, however. Estimated effects on beliefs and attitudes for those who didn’t hold strong pre-existing pro-environmental attitudes and beliefs were large, suggesting that visual and/or textual information can have large impacts on that group. There are almost no differences across treatments, whether for the sample as a whole or for the subsamples. A large majority of respondents reported that the experimental treatment made them want to learn more about this important environmental problem.