“Be Worried, be VERY Worried:” Preferences for and Impacts of Negative Emotional Climate Change Communication

While communication experts largely recommend avoiding climate change messages that create negative emotional states, little is known regarding how members of the public use emotions in their own communication about climate change. Given the important role individuals can play in addressing climate change via their interpersonal communication, it is important to understand preferences for using or avoiding communication framed with negative emotions, and their ultimate impact on taking action to address climate change. Further, social expectations about the use of emotions may influence whether individuals' gender and political identity impacts their preference for using specific types of emotions. Three studies tested preferences for and impacts of three negative emotions common to climate change responses: fear, sadness, and anger, in comparison to messages framed without emotion. Findings indicate that people generally prefer messages framed without emotion, although in line with predictions, women, and Democrats are more apt to prefer emotional messages than men and Republicans. Although participants say they prefer messages framed without emotion, climate change messages framed with negative emotions are more likely than messages framed without emotion to match participants' feelings on climate change, while messages framed with specific types of negative emotions are more likely than messages framed without emotion to convey impressions of the speaker as rational, strong, and caring, which in turn predict greater preference for emotional over non-emotional messages. Further, results from a petition-signing study indicate that communicating with negative emotions does not promote nor hinder behavioral engagement

Dataset associated with "Seeking congruity for agentic women: a longitudinal examination of college women's persistence in STEM"

Those interested in using these data are encouraged to contact Dr. Paul Hernandez ([email protected]) and Dr. Emily Fischer ([email protected]) for more information. Data Contacts: Paul R. Hernandez (primary), [email protected], 979-464-9229 Emily V. Fischer, [email protected], 970-491-8587.Survey data were collected via the online Qualtrics survey system twice yearly in the fall and spring semesters from fall 2015 through spring 2019. This repository contains the data file associated with all surveys utilized in the analyses presented in this research article.Format of Data Files: Data files are in .csv format. Files can be opened by most software (e.g., Notepad, WordPad, Excel) – anything that can read a comma delimited ASCII text file. Here, the file name is "Dataset." In addition, a codebook accompanies the data file. The codebook contains the variable names, variable labels, and value labels for all variables contained within the "Dataset.csv" file.An abundance of literature has examined barriers to women's equal representation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, with many studies showing that STEM fields are not perceived to afford communal goals, a key component of women's interest in future careers. Using Goal Congruity Theory as a framework, we tested the longitudinal impact of perceptions of STEM career goal affordances, communal and agentic goals, and their congruity on persistence in science from the second through fourth years of college among women in STEM majors. We found that women's intent to persist in science were highest in fall of their second year, that persistence intentions exhibited a sharp decline, and that eventually leveled off by their fourth year of college. This pattern was moderated by perceptions of agentic affordances in STEM, such that women with higher perceptions of agentic affordances experienced smaller declines. Similar to prior research, we found that higher perceptions of communal goal affordances in STEM consistently predicted higher persistence intentions. Finally, we found an agentic goal-affordance congruity interaction, such that higher perceptions of agentic affordances in STEM predicted higher persistence intentions; however, the positive relationship was stronger for women with higher agentic goals. We conclude that because STEM fields are stereotyped as affording agentic goals, women who identify interest in a STEM major during their first year of college may be drawn to these fields for this reason, and may benefit from perceptions that STEM affords both communal and agentic goals.Funding for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation through grant number DUE- 1431795, DUE-1431823, and DUE-1460229

How Hope and Doubt Affect Climate Change Mobilization

The severe threats posed by anthropogenic climate change make hope and a sense of efficacy key ingredients in effective climate communication. Yet little is known about what makes individuals hopeful–or in contrast, doubtful–that humanity can reduce the problem, or how hope relates to activism. This study uses mixed-methods with two national surveys to (1) identify what makes people hopeful or doubtful that humanity will address the problem (Study 1, N = 674), and (2) whether hopeful and doubtful appraisals are related to activism or policy support (Study 2, N = 1,310). In Study 1, responses to open-ended questions reveal a lack of hope among the public. For those with hope, the most common reason relates to social phenomena–seeing others act or believing that collective awareness is rising (“constructive hope”). Hope for some, however, stems from the belief that God or nature will solve the problem without the need for human intervention (which we call “false hope”). The most prevalent doubts are low prioritization, greed, and intergroup conflict (i.e., the need for cooperation at various scales to successfully address the issue). We identified both “constructive” and “fatalistic” doubts. Constructive doubts are concerns that humanity won't address the problem effectively, while fatalistic doubts are beliefs that we can't address the problem even if we wanted to because it is in the hands of God or Mother Nature. In study 2, we used these emergent hope and doubt appraisals to develop survey measures. Regression analyses suggest that constructive hope and doubt predict increased policy support and political engagement, whereas false hope and fatalistic doubt predict the opposite. An interaction exists between constructive hope and doubt in predicting political behavioral intentions, which suggests that having hope that humans will reduce climate change, along with recognition that humans are not doing enough may also be constructive and motivate political action. Climate change communicators might consider focusing on constructive hope (e.g., human progress, the rise of clean energy), coupled with elements of constructive doubt (e.g., the reality of the threat, the need for more action), to mobilize action on climate change

Role modeling is a viable retention strategy for undergraduate women in the geosciences

Gender diversity leads to better science; however, a number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, including many geoscience subdisciplines, show a persistent gender gap. PROmoting Geo- science Research, Education, and SuccesS (PROGRESS) is a theory-driven role modeling and mentoring program aimed at supporting undergraduate women interested in geoscience-related degree and career pathways. This study is unique because it is being conducted in a long-term applied setting, rather than as a laboratory exercise. We compare female STEM majors in PROGRESS to a matched control group (N = 380) using a longitudinal prospec- tive multisite quasi-experimental design. College women in PROGRESS par- ticipated in a mentoring and role-modeling weekend workshop with follow- up support, while women in the control group participated in neither the workshop nor the follow-up support. PROGRESS members identified more female STEM career role models than controls (60% versus 42%, respectively), suggesting that deliberate interventions can develop the networks of under- graduate women. Undergraduate women that participate in PROGRESS have higher rates of persistence in geoscience-related majors (95% versus 73%), although the rates of switching into a geoscience-related major did not differ across groups. More strikingly, we also find that the persistence of undergrad- uate women in geoscience-related majors is related to the number of female STEM career role models they identify, as their odds of persisting approxi- mately doubles for each role model they identify. We conclude that our ability to retain undergraduate women in the geosciences will depend, in part, on helping them to identify same-gender career role models. Further, the suc- cess of PROGRESS points to steps universities and departments can take to sustain their students’ interest and persistence, such as hosting interactive panels with diverse female scientists to promote the attainability and social relevance of geoscience careers

Dataset for "Outperforming yet undervalued: undergraduate women in STEM"

Undergraduate students' academic performance and perceptions of classmates.The dataset consists of a single (.csv) data file containing anonymous student data for 2793 students. Variables are defined below and in the accompanying codebook. This data is reported in the manuscript: "Outperforming yet undervalued: Undergraduate women in STEM." There are 3 total files included in this database: 1. This README file which gives an overview of the data 2. The data file (.csv file) 3. The codebook, which describes each variable in the data file, coding values, and additional information on each measure.Gender diversity is critically needed in many science fields, but women continue to encounter beliefs that they lack ability and talent. Undergraduate education is a critical time when peer influence may alter choice of majors and careers for women interested in science. Even in life science courses, where women outnumber men, peer-to-peer interactions could detract from women's success and interest. We find that women are outperforming their male classmates in both physical and life science courses, but men continue to be perceived as equal or better students. This is problematic because it suggests that undergraduate women cannot escape gender-ability stereotypes even when they are more capable than men, and has important implications for the recognition of women's achievements among their peers in undergraduate education.This work was funded by a Pre-Catalyst grant from Colorado State University

Predicting clothing disposal: The moderating roles of clothing sustainability knowledge and self-enhancement values

The purpose of the study was to identify factors that predicted clothing disposal with a focus on testing the moderating roles of knowledge (i.e., clothing sustainability knowledge) and personal values (i.e., self-enhancement), while introducing a new concept of consumers' self-perception of owning (SPO). Data were collected from university students through an online survey using Qualtrics. Results showed that the influence of self-perception of owning (SPO) in consumers’ disposal behaviors, specifically how long they keep clothing before disposing of it, was unexpected and contrary to predictions. The direct relationships between amount of clothing purchases and self-perception of owning (SPO) and between SPO and clothing disposal behavior (i.e., duration of keeping clothing items before disposal) were not found in this study. The interaction results, however, indicated that the positive relationship between clothing purchases and SPO existed and was strengthened for participants who had a high level of clothing sustainability knowledge, but not for those participants who had moderate or low level of clothing sustainability knowledge. Additionally, the study found that the negative relationship between SPO and how long participants would keep clothing before disposing of it became even stronger for those participants who valued greatly personal success and achievement in life than those who did not value personal success and achievement as much

A Survey of African American Physicians on the Health Effects of Climate Change

The U.S. National Climate Assessment concluded that climate change is harming the health of many Americans and identified people in some communities of color as particularly vulnerable to these effects. In Spring 2014, we surveyed members of the National Medical Association, a society of African American physicians who care for a disproportionate number of African American patients, to determine whether they were seeing the health effects of climate change in their practices; the response rate was 30% (n = 284). Over 86% of respondents indicated that climate change was relevant to direct patient care, and 61% that their own patients were already being harmed by climate change moderately or a great deal. The most commonly reported health effects were injuries from severe storms, floods, and wildfires (88%), increases in severity of chronic disease due to air pollution (88%), and allergic symptoms from prolonged exposure to plants or mold (80%). The majority of survey respondents support medical training, patient and public education regarding the impact of climate change on health, and advocacy by their professional society; nearly all respondents indicated that the US should invest in significant efforts to protect people from the health effects of climate change (88%), and to reduce the potential impacts of climate change (93%). These findings suggest that African American physicians are currently seeing the health impacts of climate change among their patients, and that they support a range of responses by the medical profession, and public policy makers, to prevent further harm