Increasing climate efficacy is not a surefire means to promoting climate commitment

Abstract

People's perception of their own efficacy is a critical precursor for adaptive behavioural responses to the threat posed by climate change. The present study investigated whether components of climate efficacy could be enhanced by short video messages. An online study (N ¼ 161) compared groups of participants who received messages focusing on individual or collective behaviour. Relative to a control group, these groups showed increased levels of response efficacy but not self-efficacy. However, this did not translate to increased climate commitment; mediation analysis suggested that the video messages, while increasing efficacy, may also have had a counterproductive effect on behavioural intentions, possibly by reducing the perceived urgency of action. This finding reinforces the challenge faced by climate communicators seeking to craft a message that boosts efficacy and simultaneously motivates adaptive responses to the climate crisis.

Different Educational Interventions on Individual Cognition of Garbage Classification Based on EEG Monitoring

“…The results showed that more than half of the respondents believed the above-mentioned media may be beneficial to facilitate the formation of a classification habit [ 22 ]. Gu et al (2020) and Angill-Williams and Davis (2021) found that direct, simple expressions, e.g., embedding typical environmental crises in public service advertisements, including water scarcity, global warming, etc., can help improve the individual’s self-learning effect and express a more pro-environmental attitude [ 23 , 24 ].…”