The Cultivation, Mainstreaming, and Cognitive Processing of Environmentalists Watching Television

Abstract

Cultivation theory research has found a relationship between heavier viewing of television and less concern about the natural environment. The current research delves further into this issue by exploring how environmentalists’ television viewing is related to their attitudes about the environment. The findings indicate that when overall television viewing is the independent variable, there are cultivation and mainstreaming effects for environmentalists (i.e., environmentalists who were heavy viewers of television scored lower on the new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale than lighter viewing environmentalists, and were more similar to the general public in their environmental attitudes than lighter viewers). The findings also show that the cultivation effects are related to need for cognition (NFC) and attention to television (such that those with higher NFC, and those who pay more attention to television, have lower scores on the NEP scale). When non-fiction programming is the independent variable, however, heavier television viewers score higher on the NEP, and NFC and attention to television do not relate to the cultivation effect.