Abstract

The purpose of this research study is to identify whether (a) positively-framed media or (b) negatively-framed media have a stronger impact on environmental attitudes and behavior, compared to a no-video control group. The Theory of Planned Behavior will be used as the main theoretical framework to inform predictions of changes in pro-environmental behavior between the three video conditions using environmental attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control as variables. Participants are randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a positively skewed pro-environmental video, a negatively-skewed pro-environmental video, or a no-video control group. After viewing the video, participants completed self-report measures of their pro-environmental (a) attitudes, (b) subjective norms, (c) perceived behavioral control, (d) behavioral intentions, (e) recent behavior, and their (f) current mood. We hypothesized that (1) the positively-framed environmental video would lead to more pro-environmental behavior than the negatively-framed video and the control groups; and that (2) we would find support for the theory of planned behavior as applied to a pro-environmental behavior intervention. Four one-way ANOVAs that compared reactions across video conditions indicated that none of the aforementioned variables were significantly different across those conditions. Multiple regression analyses assessing how well theory of planned behavior variables predicted pro-environmental behavior suggests that the variables together could accurately predict pro-environmental behavior, and that attitudes in particular could predict it on their own. Planned future analyses will include a second time point, which at this time is still in data collection. This research is important because discovering how to incite attitudinal change is paramount to creating the widespread pro-environmental behavioral changes needed to combat climate change.