29.08.2022

To scare or not to scare? Is a message of fear more effective than a message of hope?

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According to the Climate Change Committee, 62% of future emissions reductions depend – at least in part – on behaviour change. What makes for an effective message to encourage and enable the different practices and routines that are required to achieve those reductions? What is more effective, fear or hope?

Fear arises when individuals perceive themselves to be faced with imminent physical harm and is thought to be a useful motivational tool as its associated action tendency is to protect oneself from harm.

Similar to fear, hope derives from the perception of an uncertain future, but unlike fear, it is associated with more positive future expectations. Hope is a feeling of “wishing and yearning for relief from a negative situation, or for the realization of a positive outcome when the odds do not greatly favour it” and its associated motivational function is to encourage goal pursuit.

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