Resource Type: Research & Articles

This book explores what makes movements and campaigns successful and what makes them fail using multiple examples of societal changes between 1980 and 2016 including acid rain reduction, drunk-driving reduction, LGBT marriage equality, anti-smoking, the expansion of gun rights, etc.

Use sequenced messages of fear and then hope to promote pro-climate attitudes and behaviors. People’s beliefs about climate change and subsequent willingness to act after being introduced to climate messages are affected by their emotions. Information about climate change or policies on their own are less likely to inspire action than ones framed in terms of paired messages tied to “threat” and “efficacy” (empowerment). And “emotional flow” through multiple emotions is more effective than messages that inspire only one emotion. Climate messages that evoke fear and then hope increase advocacy behavior, relative to messages that emphasize the threat of climate change alone (which are themselves more effective than totally neutral information).