Feeling Good and Doing Good for the Environment: The Use of Emotional Appeals in Pro-Environmental Public Service Announcements

Abstract

Research in political psychology suggests that politicians successfully manipulate emotions through campaign advertisements. While work in environmental psychology emphasizes emotional connection to the environment, scholars have yet to examine the potential of emotional appeals in non-campaign messages. I am interested in the use of emotional appeals in pro-environmental public service announcements. I set out to test the effect of emotional appeals in an environmental public service announcement script. Using a survey experiment I demonstrate that emotions significantly influence the environmental attitudes of participants. My findings offer support for the application of affective intelligence theory to environmental communication.