Navigating through the jungle of information. Informational self-efficacy predicts climate change-related media exposure, knowledge, and behaviour

Abstract

Climate change is a complex issue and understanding it is not an easy endeavour. An abundance of information is available through media and a lot of research has dealt with the question of how to best communicate this issue to the public. However, uncertainty and scepticism remain. In this paper, we argue that the subjective capability of informing oneself satisfactorily about climate change (i.e. informational self-efficacy) to reach goals like forming an opinion, evaluating political decisions regarding climate change, or behaving in a climate protective manner might be a crucial determinant of people’s engagement with the issue. In an online survey with a quota sample of German residents (N = 498), informational self-efficacy positively predicted people’s exposure to climate change communication in the media, their knowledge about the climate system and climate protective behaviours, and the extent to which they actually engaged in climate protective actions. Moreover, informational self-efficacy positively predicted climate protective behaviour and climate system knowledge indirectly through media exposure—but not behavioural knowledge. Hence, next to optimising the provided climate change communication, we suggest to strengthen people’s confidence in dealing with it through media literacy trainings and examine the causal effect of these trainings on informational self-efficacy and climate change engagement. Furthermore, the impact of different behaviours on climate change should be more often and more concretely discussed in media coverage.

Scientifically Informed Solidarity: Changing Anti-Immigrant Prejudice about Universal Access to Health

“…The proliferation of fake news, which has seen a boost resulting from the use of social media by citizens of every ages and walks of life [15,35,36], has indeed posed a challenge in the form of populist discourses and narratives based on the spread of falsehoods [18], with very important consequences for the increase of racism and discrimination in our societies [19].…”

“…For instance, Krupic [17] analysed the effect of different factors on decision making about organ donation, finding a positive relation between having increased information about it and the donation process, highlighting increased information as a predictor of organ donation. Furthermore, the quality of the information we receive and how efficiently we address it have also been identified as predictors of attitudinal change, as highlighted in the study of Loy, Hamn and Reese [18] about informational self-efficacy and its positive effect on improving climate protective behaviours.…”

Coaching for a Sustainability Transition: Empowering Student-Led Sustainability Initiatives by Developing Skills, Group Identification, and Efficacy Beliefs

“…While many studies find agent-aim self-efficacy to be an important predictor of private behavior such as energy saving behavior or sustainable consumption (Roberts, 1996;Straughan and Roberts, 1999;Kim and Choi, 2005;Hanss and Böhm, 2010;Lee et al, 2014;Hunter and Röös, 2016;Loy et al, 2020), others do not (Homburg and Stolberg, 2006;Kim, 2011;Chen, 2015;Wang and Lin, 2017). Regarding efficacy aims, Hanss and Böhm (2010) found that an indirect self-efficacy aimed at encouraging others to promote sustainable development was a better predictor of private behavior than self-efficacy aimed generally at promoting sustainable development (see also Hanss et al, 2016).…”

Individual and social‐psychological factors to explain climate change efficacy: The role of mindfulness, sense of global community, and egalitarianism

“…Besides, it could be more specific if referred to some defined climate actions (Bostrom et al, 2019). For instance, self-efficacy could be related to the action of information seeking that was found to predict the extent to which people actually engaged in climate protective actions (Loy et al, 2020).…”