Climate change hopefulness, anxiety, and behavioral intentions among adolescents: randomized controlled trial of a brief "selfie" video intervention.

Abstract

Aim: We tested the utility of showing "selfie" videos to increase adolescents' climate change hope, agency, and behavioral intentions, and to decrease their climate anxiety.

Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial among healthy volunteers, ages 14 to 18, enrolled through a crowdsourcing platform. We randomly assigned participants (N = 1039) to view one of three 110-s-long video interventions featuring the same adolescent protagonist: positive (depicting an action-oriented stance); negative (defeatist stance); and control (neutral stance and unrelated content). The primary outcome was climate change hope; secondary outcomes were climate change anxiety, behavioral intention scales, and 100-point sliders about hopefulness and agency.

Results: Viewing positive "selfie" videos proved effective among adolescents in increasing hopefulness and a sense of agency regarding climate change (< 0.001), but not in decreasing climate anxiety or increasing intentions to engage in pro-environmental behaviors.

Conclusion: Brief video-based interventions featuring adolescent protagonists showed potential to increase hope and agency regarding climate change. While this single exposure did not directly affect anxiety levels or behavioral intentions, future research should examine whether repeated exposure and different "doses" of such interventions might influence these outcomes. The ubiquity and reach of social media hold promise to scale these inexpensive and specifically tailored interventions.