Letting nature speak: differential impacts of reacting environmental issues on environmental discourses & emotions

Abstract

Perceptions of environmental issues can be shaped by using framing techniques or by the type of environmental discourse used. The emotional experience to narratives of environmental change can also be shaped by how environmental issues are presented. This paper investigated how types of environmental discourse shape an individual’s preference for a narrative. Both climate change and plastic pollution were used to assess how people respond to environmental discourse. The environmental discourse use was expected to affect one’s response to embody key ideas of the environmental discourse. Additionally, the link between environmental discourse and emotions was investigated. It investigates how (i) survivalism affects eco-grief, eco-anxiety and eco-anger; (ii) economic rationalism affects eco-apathy; (iii) green romanticism affects eco-hope. Study 1 involved 27 Singaporean undergraduates, while Study 2 involved 126 American citizens, participants completed an online questionnaire exploring the relationships between environmental discourse, emotions, and pro-environmental behaviors. The study failed to find direct evidence linking environmental discourse to emotions, environmental issue was shown not to have differing results in relation to the type of environmental discourse exposed. Additionally, reading a specific type of environmental discourse influences support for that environmental discourse is reflected only in Study 1, not Study 2. Discussions of the two research studies, implications of the findings, and future directions were considered.