Resource Type: Research & Articles

The most concerning message about air pollution’s impacts is how it can affect the brain health of babies and children. This survey experiment tested which messages about the impacts of air pollution are most concerning to people. The message about the effects on the neurology of babies and children was more concerning to people than other messages that included: a general impact on all adults’ brain health, impacts on children and older adults and people living close to pollution sources, impacts on hearts and lungs and brains, and impacts on older adults and the likelihood of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

From September 2018 to June 2019, the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) conducted message testing to develop valuable analysis about how to most effectively mobilize environmental justice communities to increase long-term, persistent engagement on climate issues and potentially inform their programmatic work. 
 

In the lead up to the 2018 election, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) worked with the Analyst Institute to test the effectiveness of environmental and social pressure messages to increase voter turnout among their members. They also tested which mode of contact was most effective at increasing voter turnout: mail, SMS, or both. Results form the tests found:

The GOTV efforts increased voter turnout by 0.4 percentage points.
Both messages increased voter turnout, with suggestive evidence that the social pressure message was more effective.
All three modes of contact (mail, SMS, or both) led to increased voter turnout. Layering SMS and mail did not seem more effective then mail and SMS alone.