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ABSTRACT
Air pollution is among the world’s greatest environmental health threats. Still, little strategic communication research has addressed it. We report two pre-registered experiments examining narrative and statistical message effects. Study 1 (N = 1,282, U.S.) showed little effect for either. Study 2 (N = 754, California), which accounted for potentially problematic design features of Study 1, found effects for both types across a range of attitudinal outcomes (emotional response, efficacy, risk). Narrative messaging also had a small effect on mitigation intention. Carefully designed messages may produce positive changes on this issue, but success depends on alignment between message construction, recommended behaviors, and audience relevance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data Availability Statement
The Open Scholarship notice immediately below includes a link to the data. This can be included above as well: The data and materials areopenly accessible at http://osf.io/2su7x/.
Open scholarship
This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data, Open Materials and Preregistered. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/2su7x/, and https://osf.io/2su7x/registrations.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2023.2282037
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Dima Farooq
Dima Farooq is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Kushal Gautam
Kushal Gautam is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Zainab Hadi
Zainab Hadi is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Bailey Hardiman
Bailey Hardiman is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Luisa Delgado Heinz
Luisa Delgado Heinz is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Seth Sanders
Seth Sanders is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Sammie Serrano
Sammie Serrano is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Marisol Solis
Marisol Solis is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Taylor Trent
Taylor Trent is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Bobbie Wilde
Bobbie Wilde is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Jared Williams
Jared Williams is an undergraduate at the University of Utah and members of the course COMM 5820: Designing Experiments in Science Communication.
Benjamin Lyons
Ben Lyons is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Utah studying the intersection of media, politics, and public understanding of science.