Persuasion as Reinforcement: Strengthening the Pro-Environmental Attitude-Behavior Relationship through Ecotainment Programming

Abstract

This study investigated whether the effects of viewing pro-environmental messages within a narrative context affected intention to perform ecofriendly behaviors through the accessibility of participants’ (N = 332) environmental attitudes. One week after an online pretest, participants viewed one of two television clips that either included or did not include pro-environmental messages. Participants then completed attitude accessibility latency measures and reported behavioral intent to perform several ecofriendly behaviors. Reinforcement of pro-environmental attitudes by the pro-environmental messages occurred through the accessibility of the attitudes, which, in turn, predicted intention to engage in the depicted ecofriendly behaviors. Consistent with a category activation hypothesis, accessible attitudes toward the specific behaviors depicted in the program predicted the accessibility of attitudes toward ecofriendly behaviors that were not depicted or explicitly discussed in the program, and these accessible attitudes predicted intention to engage in ecological behaviors not depicted in the program. These findings are a first demonstration that portrayals of specific behaviors in a narrative television program can increase behavioral intention for related behaviors not shown in the program and that these effects occur through the activation of existing, positive attitudes.

Notes

1. We use the term narrative program to refer to programming such as fictional and nonfictional television programs that are generally produced with the intention to entertain and are perceived as such by the audience. We differentiate these types of programs from news reports, documentaries, infomercials, and advertisements that are produced with the intent to inform or persuade and are acknowledged as persuasive attempts by message recipients. We do not imply that all narrative programs are equally entertaining or that viewers of news reports or infomercials are never entertained by them.