Environmental advertising: the effect of imagery on pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour / Publicidad medioambiental: el efecto de las imágenes sobre las actitudes proambientales y el comportamiento proambiental

Abstract

Conservation psychology is an emerging field, with few studies examining the role of advertising imagery on environmental attitudes and behaviours. This study aimed to expand the knowledge in this field, by examining how different types of imagery affect pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Undergraduate psychology students from Macquarie University (N = 124) were assigned to one of three brochure groups. These brochure groups consisted of a hard copy brochure which contained either positive, negative or no images which participants read at the start of the study. Participants’ pro-environmental attitudes were then assessed using the New Ecological Paradigm, and behaviour through a hypothetical scenario in which respondents were asked to proportion $100 across three charity options or retain the money. It was found that positive imagery increased pro-environmental attitudes, over and above both the control (neutral) and negative images. In contrast, imagery did not affect pro-environmental behaviours. These findings suggest that positive images are most likely to elicit positive change in pro-environmental attitudes. However, these findings suggest that imagery in advertising does not impact pro-environmental behaviours.