Abstract
Military service members are a highly trusted group–especially among ideological conservatives. Consequently, we devised an environmental communication strategy that attributes pro-climate messages to military service members, aimed at convincing conservative climate skeptics to express elevated concern. In a large survey experiment, we show that conservatives are more likely to express concern about climate change when framed as a national security concern and communicated by members of the armed services. Supplementary analyses of an original military service member survey suggest that this approach is externally valid, as many past and current armed forces express concern about the effects of climate change. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of appealing to trusted sources to communicate climate change risks to skeptical audiences, and suggests several promising avenues for future environmental communication research.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 85-98 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Environmental Communication |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 31 Jul 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2 Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by University of Oklahoma, College of International Studies Faculty Support Grant.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords
- Climate communication
- climate opinion
- international relations
- national security
- national security attitudes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law