Beyond Personal Responsibility: Analyzing How Attributing Responsibility for Environmental Protection Can Hinder Action

Abstract

Environmentalists face several challenges when communicating water quality hazards, especially those that are unseen to the naked eye. Grounded in the Extended Parallel Process Model, we analyzed how perceptions of conservation responsibility and the visualization of pollution affected perceived water quality threats, efficacy, and pro-environmental behavior outcomes. We conducted a 2 × 2 between-subjects controlled message-testing experiment with 502 adults from the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Individuals viewed personal or government attribution messages with fear or non-fear visuals to see how messages affected intentions to take part in a river clean-up day, enact environmentally friendly behaviors, and comment on public policy. Messages that promoted government responsibility and those that featured images of polluted water increased response efficacy, threat appraisals, fear, and intentions. Promoting personal responsibility yielded more limited effects. Furthermore, messages were less effective when they featured visuals of clean water. Implications include recommendations for using responsibility attribution messages in practice and engaging the public with information about unseen hazards.