Conservation organizations use a variety of marketing and outreach methods to engage communities in conservation efforts. Many of these organization seek to frame their messages to inspire pro-environmental behaviors and behavior change. Though many studies have demonstrated a noticeable gap between public concern for the environment and action for the environment, few studies have investigated the types of environmental messages that most effectively inspire pro-environmental behaviors. This study focused on digital messaging and explored the differential impacts of positively versus negatively framed environmental messages. The authors investigated: (1) whether differently framed video messages influence intentions to engage in pro-environmental behaviors, (2) whether women respond differently to the video messages than men, and (3) whether people with demonstrated interest in the environment respond differently to the video messages than others.
For this study, the authors first reviewed over 40 conservation videos posted on the websites of various international environmental organizations. Of the videos they reviewed, they selected six for their study. They selected the videos based on video length (1-2 minutes), a focus on wildlife conservation and biodiversity, and unambiguous framing. Three videos had clear positive message frames (e.g., with beautiful nature images and encouraging, hopeful messages), two had clear negative message frames (e.g., with images of degraded habitats and apocalyptic messages), and one had a neutral frame.
The authors collected data through an online survey. The survey showed the six videos—each of which was assigned an organizational identifier (e.g., Organization A)—followed by a series of questions. Following each video, survey respondents were asked to rate their reactions according to 3 different scales ranging from 1 to 5: (1) unpleasant to pleasant; (2) calm to intense, and (3) not in control to in control. Respondents were also asked how much money ($0 to $40) they would recommend people give to each organization and how much time (0 to 8 hours) they would be willing to invest in each organization. The authors distributed the survey to 1,226 students enrolled in a general undergraduate science course at an American university. Of these students—who represented 13 environmentally focused majors and 80 other majors—524 (73% female, 73% white) completed the survey. The authors used statistics to analyze the survey data.
The authors found that participants were more willing to give time and money after watching positively-framed videos compared to negatively-framed videos. The most positive video elicited the highest degree of willingness to support a conservation organization through donations of time and money, while the most negative video elicited the lowest degree of willingness. On the whole, female participants were willing to give more time and money than were males. However, there was no significant difference between male and female participants in terms of how they responded to differently framed videos. In other words, positively framed videos elicited greater willingness to support conservation organizations than did negatively framed videos, regardless of sex. Additionally, there were no significant differences between environmental and non-environmental majors in terms of their reactions to the videos.
This study has some limitations. The survey asked about participants' behavioral intentions after viewing conservation videos but did not consider factors other than the video that might influence behaviors. Additionally, the short-term nature of this study does not offer any insights into the longer-term impacts of message framing on pro-environmental behaviors. The authors also acknowledged that the participants—all of whom were undergraduate students at a single university—may have been too similar to show any significant differences in how people react to differently framed messages.
The authors recommend that conservation organizations be thoughtful and strategic about how they frame their messages to the public. They recommend that these organizations put time and effort into developing positively-framed messages, especially as environmental issues become more dire and people need both hope and positive reasons to engage in conservation efforts.
The Bottom Line
This study explored whether positive or negative conservation videos were more effective in inspiring pro-environmental behaviors among 524 undergraduate survey participants. The authors asked participants to view and respond to six wildlife videos, three of which had a positive message and three with a negative message. The authors found that respondents were willing to donate more time and money to the organizations with positively-framed videos and recommend that conservation organizations focus their efforts on positive messages.