First-Person Effects of Emotional and Informational Messages in Strategic Environmental Communications Campaigns

Jennifer Hoewe, Lee Ahern

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined the first- and third-person effects of emotional and informational messages, particularly relating to the critical issue areas of energy, the environment, and global warming. Due to intense political polarization on such issues, it also explored the role of political party identification. The results of an experiment indicated that informational messages about the environment produced third-person effects, while environmental advertisements meant to evoke emotion caused first-person effects. Moreover, emotional environmental advertisements appealed more to Republicans and those who did not support a political party. As such, indirect, emotional messages appear to represent an opportunity for strategic environmental communicators to design campaigns that resonate with potentially unreceptive audiences.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)810-820
Number of pages11
JournalEnvironmental Communication
Volume11
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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