Inoculating against threats to climate activists’ image: Intersectional environmentalism and the Indian farmers’ protest

Abstract

An emerging strategy in climate movements is to build solidarity with other social movements to mobilize climate action—but can this backfire? In a pre-registered experiment (N=541 Indian adults), we investigated the effect of Greta Thunberg's tweets expressing solidarity with the Indian farmers’ protest on Indians’ receptivity to her climate advocacy and their intentions to take collective climate action. Protest support moderated the effect of her tweets such that after reading her tweets, those who opposed the farmers’ protest found Thunberg to be less effective as a climate advocate compared to the control condition. Exposure to the tweets also lowered protest opposers’ collective climate action intentions. In contrast, those who supported the farmers’ protest became more receptive to her climate advocacy after reading her tweets. Pre-emptively clarifying Thunberg's motives using an image-prepare pre-bunk inoculated against the negative effects on her image– protest opposers who received the pre-bunk before reading Thunberg's tweets were as receptive to her as were protest opposers in the control condition. The results suggest that climate advocates’ intervention in other social movements can polarise the public's opinion about them and the public's pro-climate action intentions. This unintended effect may be mitigated by clarifying advocates’ motives before they intervene.