The role of hope and fear in the impact of climate fiction on climate action intentions: Evidence from India and USA

Abstract

There is a growing consensus that climate fiction might be an effective communication strategy to move the public on climate. However, empirical evidence documenting such an effect is limited, especially when it comes to climate fiction's potential to induce emotions of hope and fear, which are of key importance to the ongoing debate about the social effects of climate messages. To address this gap, we conducted an experimental cross-cultural study (N = 2268) with participants from India and the USA. In line with the Extended Parallel Process Model, we hypothesized that climate fiction combining fear and hope appeals (“ambitopian climate fiction”) would be more effective at stimulating climate action intentions than either fear-appealing (“dystopian”) climate fiction or hope-appealing (“utopian”) climate fiction. The hypothesis was not supported. We found that, in the US sample, dystopian climate fiction was more effective at stimulating climate action intentions than ambitopian climate fiction. However, ambitopian climate fiction was found to be efficient at inducing both hope and fear in both samples and at stimulating climate action intentions indirectly, in the Indian sample, through these emotions. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.