Reconsidering the Effectiveness of Fear Appeals: An Experimental Study of Interactive Fear Messaging to Promote Positive Actions on Climate Change

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Abstract

Masspersonal communication has emerged as a compelling alternative persuasive approach in response to the widespread use of social media. It is crucial to comprehend how observing online interpersonal interactions regarding the fear appeal of climate change can foster pro-environmental behaviors among users. This study examines the effects of vicarious message interactivity in promoting actions against climate change and the underlying mechanisms behind this effect. The results of an online experiment conducted in China (N = 236) revealed that psychological reactance and message elaboration mediated the effects of vicarious message interactivity on behavioral intention in a serial indirect effect. In comparison to static fear appeal, interactive fear appeal proves effective in reducing psychological reactance, promoting message elaboration, and ultimately increasing intention to take actions against climate change. Our findings not only contribute to the literature on interactive communication but also provide insights for environmental-health campaigns on social media.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplemental Data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2024.2360025.

Notes

¹ We found participants did not differ on education (F (1, 234) = 1.88, p = .17), age (F (1, 234) = 0.03, p = .87), income (F (1, 234) = 0.13, p = .72), and gender (x² (1) = 0.36, p = .55) between two conditions.

² We asked our participants one question about “To what extent you agree the above material presented a conversational interaction online” by conducting independent t-test. The results showed that participants in the interactive message condition significantly perceived a higher level of message interactivity (M = 4.73, SD = 0.48) than those in the static message condition (M = 1.52, SD = 0.84), t (181.794) = −35.97, p < . 001.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Key Project of the National Social Science Fund of China “The Structural Changes and Research Paradigm Transformation of Journalism and Communication in the 5G Era”(21AZD143) and The Humanities and Social Sciences Independent Research Fund of Tsinghua University.