Fear Appeals, Individual Differences, and Environmental Concern

Examined the effect of a brief but intense antipollution message (APM) on verbal commitment (stated willingness to act) and on 3 forms of immediate behavioral commitment (donating money, donating time, and signing a petition). 104 college students were exposed to an editorial and slides with a strong APM or to a control condition. Exposure to the APM produced significantly more verbal commitment and financial donations but not more time donations. Nearly every S signed the petition. To determine whether environmental fear appeals should be targeted at specific audiences, correlations were computed between 7 individual difference variables and environmental concern. None of the individual difference variables were significantly related to financial or time donations. However, political orientation was significantly correlated with verbal commitment.