Applying the Extended Parallel Process Model to Climate Change Communication

Author

Mikenna Renee DeBruin, Utah State University

Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

Wildland Resources

Abstract

Whereas over 99% of the scientific community believes in the concept of anthropogenic climate change, lay support is still lagging behind. I suggest three key factors to lagging lay support: 1) complexity, 2) manufactured scientific controversy, and 3) doom-and-gloom framing. Because of these factors, individuals are less willing believe in the prevalence of human-induced climate change, nonetheless do something about it. The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), however, presents a model to assuage eco-anxiety and counter psychological distance from the problem. The EPPM, proposed by Kim Witte in the 1990s, combines appeals to threat and appeals to efficacy to contextualize fear as something manageable. Many studies demonstrate that efficacy appeals enhance the impact of fear appeals in changing individual behavior. While climate change requires collective action for mitigation, cultivating care and consciousness for individual carbon footprint through the EPPM is an important first step. The EPPM was originally applied to disease and chronic illness communication; however, the joined appeals to threat and efficacy present an opportunity to amend previous pitfalls of climate change messaging.

In a study administered on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk through Qualtrics (n = 650) to individuals residing in the United States, I tested the effect of five different threat-efficacy combinations on participant self-efficacy, response efficacy, and behavioral intentions to reduce individual carbon footprint. The results reveal that participants exposed to no message (M = 4.05 ± 0.045) had significantly higher perceived self-efficacy than 1) participants exposed to the low-threat, negative efficacy message (M = 3.84 ± 0.069; p = 0.015), and 2) participants exposed to the high threat, positive efficacy message (M = 3.86 ± 0.063; p = 0.025). These results indicate that saying nothing bolsters self-efficacy more than defeatist messaging, and that the participants, especially since they reside within a hyper-individualistic culture, may want to come to their own conclusions about their capacity to reduce their carbon footprint. I also found that both participants exposed to no message (M = 3.87 ± 0.059) and to the low threat, positive efficacy message (M = 3.89 ± 0.067) had significantly higher behavioral intentions to mitigate climate change than participants exposed to the low threat, negative efficacy message (M = 3.66 ± 0.077; p = 0.033; p = 0.019. These results bolster the idea to avoid defeatist messaging and to consider whether threat, even with solutions, is too defeating with the broader context surrounding climate change. For future research, it is important to examine how presenting efficacy before threat may impact reception of climate change messages and to evaluate newer extensions of the EPPM with climate change messaging.

Recommended Citation

DeBruin, Mikenna Renee, "Applying the Extended Parallel Process Model to Climate Change Communication" (2023). Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 956.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/956