Framing effects on sustainable behavior

Abstract

The impacts of climate change are profound and widespread. Investigating the impact of strategic climate change communication is crucial for informing effective communication strategies and ultimately driving meaningful action toward addressing climate change. This research aims to develop effective climate change communication on Facebook with the objective of fostering sustainable behavior. It seeks to accomplish this by evaluating the influence of strategic climate change frames on sustainable behavior intentions and examining the moderating effect of greenwash awareness. We conducted two experimental studies: A 10 (frames) x 2 (greenwash awareness: high vs. low) between‐subject experiment with 710 responses and a 25 (frames) x 2 (greenwash awareness: high vs. low) between‐subject experiment with 1586 responses. Results indicate that communication framed in natural well‐being, sustainable expertise, and environmental frames encouraged sustainable behavior more than other frames. Multiple frames are more persuasive than single frames in increasing the intention of sustainable action. Greenwash awareness exerts moderating impacts on the framing effects. The current research is the first exploration to shed light on framing strategies of climate change communications by taking non‐climate frames and greenwash awareness into consideration. We offer actionable insights into how enterprises can strategically use frames to improve performance and accountability in sustainable development.