Abstract:
Environmental issues such as climate change are becoming ever more important
in today’s societies and politics. Information is spread by the media, for example,
via the Internet or information brochures, employing different representational
styles (e.g. sensational vs. neutral styles, emphasis of human vs. natural causes).
We investigated the effects of such differences in presentation when informing
about local impacts of climate change – more specifically about invasive species
– on perceived risk, emotions, and learning. Seventy-two students at a German
university read five brochures about the local effects of climate change and
invasive species. They rated their perceived risk and emotions and worked on
learning outcome tests. As expected, the sensational style led to higher perceived
risk and stronger negative emotions than the neutral style. In addition, our results
reveal a potential dilemma for environmental education: while a sensational style
enhanced general learning outcomes, it seemed to lead to quite a negative and
one-sided view about climate change and invasive species.