A public health frame arouses hopeful emotions about climate change A Letter

Communication researchers and practitioners have suggested that framing climate change in terms of public health and/or national security may make climate change more personally relevant and emotionally engaging to segments of the public who are currently disengaged or even dismissive of the issue....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inClimatic change Vol. 113; no. 3-4; pp. 1105 - 1112
Main Authors Myers, Teresa A., Nisbet, Matthew C., Maibach, Edward W., Leiserowitz, Anthony A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.08.2012
Springer
Subjects
Atmospheric Sciences
climate change
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
emotions
Environmental problems
Human ecology and demography
Letter
public health
reading
researchers
risk
risk reduction
Sociology
Sociology of health and medicine
surveys
United States
USA
United States
National Security
Climate Change
Message Frame
Online Supplemental Material
Supplemental Material Table
Action
Survey
Public Health
Adjustment
Experiment
Climate warming
World safety
Communication
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Summary:Communication researchers and practitioners have suggested that framing climate change in terms of public health and/or national security may make climate change more personally relevant and emotionally engaging to segments of the public who are currently disengaged or even dismissive of the issue. To evaluate these assumptions, using a nationally representative online survey of U.S. residents ( N  = 1,127) conducted in December, 2010, we randomly assigned six previously identified audience segments on climate change to one of three experimental conditions. Subjects were asked to read uniquely framed news articles about climate change emphasizing either the risks to the environment, public health, or national security and the benefits of mitigation and adaptation-related actions. Results show that across audience segments, the public health focus was the most likely to elicit emotional reactions consistent with support for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Findings also indicated that the national security frame may possibly boomerang among audience segments already doubtful or dismissive of the issue, eliciting unintended feelings of anger.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:0165-0009
1573-1480
DOI:10.1007/s10584-012-0513-6