Communicating Climate Change: Why Frames Matter for Public Engagement

Articles
Nisbet MC. (2009). Communicating Climate Change: Why Frames Matter for Public Engagement. Environment, 51(2), 12-23.

Are People Acting Irrationally? Understanding Public Concerns about Environmental Threats

Articles
Wandersman, A. H. & Hallman, W. K. Are people acting irrationally? Understanding public concerns about environmental threats. Vol. 48. 1993. 681-686.
News stories about environmental events illustrate public concerns about environmental policy and regulations. Increasingly, public perceptions of risk and fear of cancer are infl…

Littering as a Function of Prior Litter and the Presence or Absence of Prohibitive Signs

Articles
Reiter, S. M. & Samuel, W. (1980). Littering as a function of prior litter and the presence or absence of prohibitive signs . Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 10, 1, 45-55.
The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect on littering behavior of (1) two ways of antilitter signs and (2) the condition of the environment (littered vs. unlit…

Designing Effective Instructional Signs with Schema Theory: Case Studies of Polystyrene Recycling

Articles
Werner, C. M., Rhodes, M.U. & Partain, K. K. (1998). Designing effective instructional signs with schema theory: Case studies of polystyrene recycling. Environment and Behavior, 30, 5, 709-735.
Two studies supported the hypothesis that signs designed to create a new polystyrene schema would be more effective than signs that did not address patrons' existing schemata. Sch…

The Role of Vivid Information in Fear Appeals and Attitude Change

Articles
Sherer, M. & Rogers, R. W. (1984). The role of vivid information in fear appeals and attitude change. Journal of Research in Personality, 18, 3, 321-334.
Investigated the persuasive impact of 3 types of vivid information frequently used in fear appeals (emotional interest, concreteness, and proximity), using 80 undergraduates who d…

Sensitizing People by Making the Abstract Concrete: Study of the Effect of "Hiroshima-Nagasaki: 1945"

Articles
Granberg, D. & Faye, N. (1972). Sensitizing people by making the abstract concrete: Study of the effect of "Hiroshima-Nagasaki: 1945.". American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 42, 5, 811-815.
The movie, Hiroshima-Nagasaki: 1945, was found to increase the anxiety regarding nuclear war, decrease the desire to survive a nuclear war, raise the sufficient provocation thres…

Reactance and Norm Appeal in Anti-Littering Messages

Articles
Reich, J. W., & Robertson, J. L. (1979). Reactance and norm appeal in anti-littering messages. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 9, 1, 91-101.
Conducted 3 experiments with a total of 390 children (over age 10 yrs) patronizing public swimming pool concessions to test a model of how anti-littering messages vary in the kind…

Fear-Arousing and Empathy-Arousing Appeals to Help: The Pathos of Persuasion

Articles
Shelton, M. L., & Rogers, R. W. (1981). Fear-arousing and empathy-arousing appeals to help: The pathos of persuasion.. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 11, 4, 366-378.
Tested the proposition that the components of a fear appeal, which persuade people to protect themselves, are the same components that persuade them to protect others. Films showi…

Availability: A Heuristic for Judging Frequency and Probability

Articles
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability.. Cognitive Psychology, 5, 2, 207-232.
Conducted a series of experiments with 877 Ss to explore a judgmental heuristic in which S evaluates the frequency of classes or the probability of events by availability (i.e.,…

Measuring the Effects of Message Framing on the Behavior of Recycling in a Residential Recycling Program

Articles
Littlejohn, C. R. (1997). Measuring the effects of message framing on the behavior of recycling in a residential recycling program. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 58, 3-A,
This research, which replicated 'The Effects of Message Framing on Response to Environmental Communications' by Joel J. Davis, explored how the framing of environmental communicat…

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