Open AccessCommunicating climate change: Improving the effectiveness of public campaigns
Author(s) -
Patricia GarcíaLeiva,
Fernando Casado Castro,
María del Carmen Hidalgo Villodres
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
escritos de psicología
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1989-3809
pISSN - 1138-2635
DOI - 10.24310/espsiescpsi.v7i2.13256
Subject(s) - psychology , sample (material) , control (management) , behaviour change , social psychology , climate change , attitude change , applied psychology , computer science , psychological intervention , ecology , chemistry , chromatography , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , biology
Research on climate change highlights the need to develop more effective campaigns to increase citizens’ awareness of this issue, increase their willingness to accept the measures necessary to halt this phenomenon and change their behaviour. This paper describes a study which analyzed the effectiveness of an advertising message that combined informative and motivational variables on proenvironmental attitudes and intended behaviour. The study sample consisted of 180 university students, divided into two equivalent groups. The results supported the initial hypothesis,the participants in the group that received specific behaviour guidelines (to increase perceived control) together with information on economic savings (motivational variable) displayed more changes in self-efficacy, pro-environmental attitudes and intention of behaviour than the group that did not receive this information.