Are Conservative Spokespeople More Effective at Communicating About Climate Change to Conservatives?
Location
PANEL: Climate Change Communication and Systems Thinking
CELA A019
Moderator: Cindy Frantz
Document Type
Presentation - Open Access
Start Date
5-1-2026 10:00 AM
End Date
5-1-2026 11:00 AM
Abstract
In the US, the majority of people believe climate change is happening. However, support for climate action is underestimated, particularly among conservatives. Exposure to normative information depicting climate action has been shown to be an effective communication tool to diminish this pluralistic ignorance effect. We assessed whether exposure to brief pro-climate action messages from political in-group members would increase climate norms and increase climate policy support. We tested “Climate Action Community Voices” (CACV), a media tool that has been utilized to communicate pro-environmental messaging with conservatives. Previous research shows that brief exposure to CV can increase climate action norms and decrease psychological distance from climate change. Our hypothesis was that exposure to CACV content depicting conservatives acting on climate change would increase norms and perceptions of climate action efficacy, and decrease psychological distance, over CACV content depicting liberals. Online participants (N = 575) from a national sample of conservatives were exposed to one of three slideshows of CACV content that was identical except for the political leaning of the person quoted: ambiguous CACV (no political indication), conservative CACV, or liberal CACV. We found no significant results, potentially due to the subtlety of the manipulation or the complexity of exposure effects.
Keywords:
Climate change, Communication, Conservatives
Recommended Citation
Holmes, Tom; Frantz, Cynthia M.; and Petersen, John E., "Are Conservative Spokespeople More Effective at Communicating About Climate Change to Conservatives?" (2026). Research Symposium. 20.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2026/presentations/20
Major
Environmental Studies; Psychology
Award
Jerome Davis Research Fund
Project Mentor(s)
Cindy Frantz, Psychology and Environmental Studies
John Petersen, Environmental Studies and Biology
2026
Are Conservative Spokespeople More Effective at Communicating About Climate Change to Conservatives?
PANEL: Climate Change Communication and Systems Thinking
CELA A019
Moderator: Cindy Frantz
In the US, the majority of people believe climate change is happening. However, support for climate action is underestimated, particularly among conservatives. Exposure to normative information depicting climate action has been shown to be an effective communication tool to diminish this pluralistic ignorance effect. We assessed whether exposure to brief pro-climate action messages from political in-group members would increase climate norms and increase climate policy support. We tested “Climate Action Community Voices” (CACV), a media tool that has been utilized to communicate pro-environmental messaging with conservatives. Previous research shows that brief exposure to CV can increase climate action norms and decrease psychological distance from climate change. Our hypothesis was that exposure to CACV content depicting conservatives acting on climate change would increase norms and perceptions of climate action efficacy, and decrease psychological distance, over CACV content depicting liberals. Online participants (N = 575) from a national sample of conservatives were exposed to one of three slideshows of CACV content that was identical except for the political leaning of the person quoted: ambiguous CACV (no political indication), conservative CACV, or liberal CACV. We found no significant results, potentially due to the subtlety of the manipulation or the complexity of exposure effects.
Notes
Presenter: Tom Holmes