Erasmus Mundus Masters
Journalism, Media and Globalisation
Joint degree
When the Visuals Speak Louder Than Words:
Effects of Environmental Visuals on Public
Perceptions and Behavioral Change
byPei Yun Lo
Student number: 11896639 Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication Master’s Programme Communication Science
Supervisor/Examiner: Dr. Andreas Schuck
University of Amsterdam
Abstract
Engaging the public is considered to be a crucial task for the governments and
pro-environment organizations to tackle pro-environmental problems. Aiming to raise awareness and
encourage behavioral change regarding environmental issues, campaigners are now adopting
a persuasive approach by applying visual communication on social media to attract public’s
attention and promote public engagement. Several studies have been conducted to explore the
public perceptions and engagement around climate change issue by analyzing climate-related
photographic imagery used in mass media. Yet, little research has been done to evaluate the
effects of different types of visual representations on public perceptions and behavioral
change regarding the environmental issues, especially plastic pollution. This study therefore
aims to test, based on an experiment (N=228), whether any differences in effects on public
perceptions and behavioral change are associated with different visual formats including
video, cartoon, infographic and photograph. In line with the previous studies, the results
reveal that the solution-oriented visuals depicting plastic pollution increase perceptions of
self-efficacy, especially if the visuals pair with the clear messages discussing actions to
address plastic pollution. Secondly, the videos are found to be the most effective
communication tools to enhance the perceptions of issue importance. Thirdly, perceived
self-efficacy and issue importance also mediate the relations between the visuals and behavioral
that the impact-oriented visuals have the potential to cause boomerang effect on perceived
self-efficacy. Through the findings shown in this study, we offer insights into the influence of
visual communication regarding environmental issues on public perception and behavioral
change.
Key words: visual communication, environmental communication, plastic pollution, public
Introduction
In March, 2018, an upsetting two and a half minutes footage video by a scuba diver
depicting the wave of plastic pollution in Indonesia’s water evoked concern and discussion
over the growing threat of ocean plastic pollution on social media overnight (Roughneen,
2018). Plastic pollution is considered to be the most urgent environmental issue in the 21st
century. As research has shown, nearly 300 million tons of plastics are produced each year
(Wassener, 2011). And rather than being properly recycled, more than 8 million tons of
plastics end up in the oceans which ultimately endanger marine ecology (Wassener, 2011).
Moreover, once plastics are dumped into the oceans, approximately it would take more than
450 years for plastic bottles, for instance, to completely decompose (Evans, 2017). What’s
worse, scientists have found that plastics would slowly break up into microplastics which
make it even harder to clean from the oceans (Carrington, 2018). Lately, a considerable
amount of microplastics have been discovered trapped inside Artic sea ice and would
ultimately be released back to oceans when ice melts due to climate change (Briggs, 2018).
Scientists warms that microplastics have been mistakenly ingested by sea life and would
someday end up in human’s stomach through seafood and even drinking water (Carrington,
2018). Although the risk to people’s health has yet to be proved, plastic pollution has already
become a global environmental concern. As this kind of environmental pollution accelerates
immediate reactions to tackle the problems. In 2017, Unite Nations Environment declared the
war on plastic pollution and launched the #CleanSeas campaign aiming to urge global actions
against plastic pollution at policy level (UN News, 2017). It is estimated that by 2050 the
number of plastics will exceed the populations of fish in the global oceans if people still
heavily rely on single-used plastic products such as plastic bags and single-used straws (UN
News, 2017).
However, while tackling such environmental issues, pro-environmental campaigners,
especially campaigners from the minority groups, found it difficult to get their voices covered
by mainstream media. As Segerberg (2017) pointed out, advocators such as minority groups
who are trying to bring up environmental issues relevant to local impacted communities into
the national or international level have difficulty attracting main stream media’s attention. It
might be mainly because the environmental issues might not be “newsworthy” enough for
market-driven media to inform as well as entertain the audience. Therefore, to immediately catch the media and people’s attention, visual communication might come in handy for campaigners and marketers. (Gioglio & Walter, 2014). Visual representations have been
considered to be the effective communication tools to covey affective and cognitive
information at the first glance since it is found that human brain can process visual content
60,000 faster than text content (Gioglio & Walter, 2014; Messaris, 1997; Lazard & Atkinson,
communication “immediate visceral understanding” (Green & Myers, 2010, p.340), and further evoke attitude formation and change in the way text cannot, especially in persuasive
campaign messages (Griffin, 2008; Lazard & Atkinson, 2014). After all, “a picture tells a thousand words” might not be merely an old saying.
The usage of visual representations have been widely used by the governments and
organizations in their pro-environmental campaigns to raise awareness and promote
behavioral change. Sheppard (2005) supported that visualization theoretically affects public
perceptions and behavioral change regarding environmental issues. So far a body of studies
have been conducted to explore the public perceptions and engagement regarding climate
change by analyzing photographic imagery on climate change impact, cause and solution used
in mass media. However, besides photographic imagery, environmental visuals include a wide
range of visual representations, from three-dimensional visualizations to infographics,
cartoons, graphs and videos. (O'Neill & Smith, 2014). It is notable that there is still limited
knowledge built around the usage of different types of visual representations and their
potential to influence public perceptions and encourage behavioral change regarding
environmental issues. Hence, aiming to find out how different types of visual representations
can influence public perceptions and behavioral change through the mediators of perceived
self-efficacy and perceived issue importance, the current study extends from the previous
four types of visual representations that are commonly presented on social media. This study
particularly focuses on plastic pollution as it is so far the most recent and urgent global crisis
that requires governments and individuals to take immidiate action. Against this backdrop of
visual communication, this study aims to answer the following questions: RQ: How do
different types of visual representations influence public perceptions and behavioral change
regarding environmental issues?
Theoretical Framework
Public perceptions of environmental visuals
Sheppard (2005, p.638) defined public perception as “the process of seeing or otherwise
perceiving phenomena, leading to particular responses or states which include both cognitive
and affective outcomes”. Sheppard further suggested when people perceive environmental
visuals, they mainly go through three mental stages, which can be broadly categorized “as
cognitive (related to knowledge and understanding), affective (related to feelings, attitudes,
and emotions), behavioral (related to changes in behavior of the viewer)” (Sheppard, 2005,
p.638; Zube, Sell & Taylor, 1982). As studies has found, visual representations are powerful
communication tools to covey cognitive and affective information, and could further evoke
attitude and behavioral change (Messaris, 1997; Griffin, 2008; Lazard & Atkinson, 2014). It is
expected that exposing people to various environmental visual representations would help
develop positive and negative feelings and ultimately act to it.
Based on previous study (Fernandez, Piccolo, Maynard, Wippoo, Meili, &Alani, 2016)
on the investigation of perceptions and behaviors of participants on two climate change
movements from 100 non-visual text-based tweets, Fernandez et al. (2016) suggested that
most of the social media participants were remaining at the desirability stage where people
showed only the desire to act. On the contrary, if the visual-based posts were being evaluated
in the study, the result might be different. Earlier visualization study (Sheppard, 2005)
examing the impact of imagery proved that “the cognitive advantages of visual information
over written or verbal information have been widely documented, for example, when mentally
visualising conditions that cannot be seen directly in the real world” (p.638). To further
understand people perceptions of environmental visuals and their intention to behavioral
change, a wide range of recent studies using qualitative methodologies (e.g. Q-sort) and
quantitative methodologies (e.g. experiments) have been carried out to investigate how people
response to photographic imageries depicting climate change impact, cause and solution. In a
series of papers, O'Neill and Nicholson-Cole (2009) conducted Q-sort method study to
investigate public perceptions of climate change photographic imageries. They found that
extreme impact imagery, especially the ones picturing dramatic weather of climate change
impacts are more captivating for the public and could lead to the increased perceptions of
which is known as boomerang effect, and possibly demotivate people from taking actions in
response to the risks portrayed (the imagery of impact might decrease the perceptions of
self-efficacy) (O'Neill &Nicholson-Cole, 2009). Later, O'Neill et al. (2013) conducted another
Q-sort study on the same topic but with the participants from the Unite States, Unite Kingdom
and Australian and found the similar pattern of results (O'Neill, Boykoff, Niemeyer & Day,
2013). Furthermore, they also found that images of solutions and actions evoke people’s
willingness to do something about climate change (participants tend to have higher
perceptions of self-efficacy). The recent study by Metag et al. (2016) using the same method
and imageries in a cross-national sample from Germany, Austria and Switzerland also backed
up O'Neill et al.’s results. However, the results from another cross-national paper using mixed
methods and participant samples from the UK, Germany and the US appeared to contradict
the previous studies (Chapman, Corner, Webster & Markowitz, 2016). Chapman et al. (2016)
indicated that images of climate solutions generate positive emotional responses, but they
perform poorly in motivating personal behavioral change. Images of climate change impacts,
on the other hand, provoke negative emotional responses and turn out to be the most
motivating for the audience (Chapman et al., 2016). To further authenticate O'Neill and his colleagues’ Q-sort studies, Hart and Feldman (2016) used experimental methodology to look into the direct and indirect effects imagery and text have on public perceptions and behavioral
Their results replicated O'Neill et al.’s studies, suggesting that solution-oriented visuals
increase the perceptions of self-efficacy, and further promote behavioral change around
climate change issue through the mediator of perceived self-efficacy, especially if the imagery
coupled with the text discussing actions. However, there is no significant boomerang effect
regarding the images of impact as well as no significant indirect effect on behavioral change
through the mediator of perceived issue importance. Moreover, in contrast to Chapman et al.’s
study (2016), Hart and Feldman (2016) did find that the images of climate solution have the
potential to indirectly increase behavioral change through the mediator of self-efficacy.
Taken together, all the studies suggested that different climate change photographic
imageries depicting impact and solution have a greater association with public perceptions
and further evoke behavioral change. Firstly, images of action and solution generate positive
responses while images of impact generate rather negative responses. Secondly, images of
action and solution lead to greater perceived self-efficacy, and further improve engagement,
especially when the images pair with the text messages discussing actions through the
mediator of perceived self-efficacy. However, the fact that impact-oriented visuals or
pollution-oriented visuals would generate perceived issue importance and promote
engagement, and also would reduce public perceptions of self-efficacy are still in need of
further investigation.
Visual representations are categorized in several genres such as (1) photograph, (2)
video, (3) infographic, (4) cartoon. Photograph is one of the well-used visual representations
on social media. A number of pro-environmental organizations apply photographs as their
crucial visual communication strategies to present the actual evidence of climate change
impact. Since 1997, the environmental campaign group Greenpeace has been using
comparative photographs to document the melting glaciers caused by climate change (Doyle,
2007). By demonstrating the actual and potential effects of climate change upon the
landscape, photographs “call attention to the problems associated with trying to communicate
the reality of environmental issues that are both temporal and unseen” to skeptical
governments and the disinterested public (Doyle, 2007, p.129). With photographic evidences
of climate change impact, Greenpeace has successfully increased public consciousness
(Doyle, 2007). As mentioned above, photographic imagery has been researched by a wide
range of studies (O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009; O'Neill et al., 2013; Metag et al., 2016;
Chapman et al., 2016; Hart & Feldman, 2016). The current study will therefore test whether
the previous results hold true by using experimental method that compares other three types
of visuals, namely video, infographic and cartoon to photographic image on plastic pollution
impact and plastic pollution solution.
H1a: Solution-oriented visuals depicting plastic pollution will generate positive emotional
negative emotional reactions.
H1b: Solution-oriented photographs depicting plastic pollution will lead to higher
perceptions of self-efficacy.
H1c: Impact-oriented photographs depicting plastic pollution will lead to higher perceptions
of issue importance.
H1d: Impact-oriented photographs depicting plastic pollution will lower perception of
self-efficacy.
In terms of the usage of videos in visual communication, the power of videos cannot be
underestimated. Visual communication experts, Gioglio and Walter (2014) suggested that
videos have the ability to attract immediate attention and resonate with the viewers in a way
other mediums cannot. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in his first 2016
Facebook Live Q & a session that the usage of videos apparently outperforms the other types
of content formats on Facebook (Hutchinson, 2016). According to BuzzSumo, “video content is driving significantly higher shares over time” (Hutchinson, 2016). Moreover, it has been widely discussed for decades that videos have the potential to influence issue awareness and
perceptions of self-efficacy that normally related to behavioral change (Acierno, Rheingold,
Resnick, & Stark-Riemer, 2004; Occa & Suggs, 2016). In previous study on post
victimization assessment and treatment, Acierno et al. (2004) reported that related-knowledge
and Suggs (2015) reaffirmed in their communicating breast cancer screening study that videos
turn out to be more effective than infographics as they were considered to be more engaging
and clear. Videos are believed to be the useful tools to communicate complicated concepts in
a visual manner and could further provoke behavioral change (Occa & Suggs, 2016;
Ferguson, 2012). The current study hereby expects that videos addressing plastic pollution
would lead to higher perceptions of self-efficacy as well as higher perceptions of issue
importance, and further provoke behavior change.
H2a: Solution-oriented videos depicting plastic pollution will lead to higher perceptions of
self-efficacy
H2b: Impact-oriented videos depicting plastic pollution will lead to higher perceptions of
issue importance
Another well-known visual communication format depicting environmental issue is
infographic. Infographics are believed to be the key methods to present issue to the public in
an understandable way (de Haan, Kruikemeier, Lecheler, Smit & van der Nat, 2017).
Infographics present the combination of visual language (e.g. pictures, texts, graphics and
charts) that could quickly attract people’s attention (Occa & Suggs, 2016). The early reported
application of infographics was found in the healthcare domain. For instance, infographics
were used to promote the usage of sunscreen to reduce skin cancer (Stephenson & Witte,
studies indicated that infographics could not only catch people’s attention but also simplify
the complex information (Severtson & Henriques, 2009). As climate change and
environmental issue are often seen to be the most complex issues for the public, infographics
are emerging to be the popular communication tools among scientists and pro-environmental
activists to help break down the complex environmental information. Lazard and Atkinson
(2014) suggested that infographics can prompt audience to evaluate pro-environmental
information and further increase audience engagement. Furthermore, a variety of studies
(O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009; O'Neill et al. ,2013; Metag et al, 2016; Chapman et al.,
2016; Hart & Feldman, 2016) confirmed that pairing solution-oriented visuals with text
highlighting actions that can be taken to address climate change issue have a greater
association with self-efficacy and further promote engagement in individual and political
spheres. Therefore, it is expected that combining text information and visual components in
an infographic format could result in the same outcomes and even leverage the power of
environmental visual communication. Hereby, the current study proposes the following
hypotheses:
H3a: Infographics could be easily understood and convey the issue of plastic pollution better
than the other three types of visual representations
H3b: Solution-oriented infographics depicting plastic pollution will lead to higher
H3c: Impact-oriented infographics depicting plastic pollution will lead to higher perceptions
of issue importance
Last but not the least, cartoon, as “one of the best depiction that is hundred times more effective than the description in words” (Ashfaq, 2012), is also investigated in the current study. Since the writer Benjamin Franklin published the first political cartoon in American
since 1750s, cartoons have been commonly used to engage with the viewers with the
humorous messages (Green, 2008). The earlies study used cartoons to demonstrate emergency
department (ED) release instructions to patients and found out that cartoons effectively
convey information and increase the patients’ willingness to comply with the instructions
(Delp & Jones, 1996). Nowadays, cartoons have also been commonly used to portray
international issues in printed newspapers as a source of satirical representation of the reality
of the issues (Ashfaq, 2012). Newspaper cartoonist, Patrick Chappatte, once shared in
TEDGlobal 2010 that the jokes shown in cartoons are the best way to address the serious
issues (Chappatte, 2010). Moreover, cartoons are not just merely used to entertain viewers,
but more often serve as “a force of social and political change” that would point out the
absurdity of reality and challenge the state quo (Giarelli & Tulman, 2003: 947). “Cartoons
reflect what the public finds absurd, worrisome, and desirable without necessarily being able to say why” (Giarelli & Tulman, 2003, p.954). Today, the environmental issues have become the popular subjects among political cartoonists as cartoons are similar to the other visual
representations in its capacity to represent environmental issues in a more creative and
engaging way (Manzo, 2010). It is believed that cartoons could break down the often complex
information and get the abstract environmental message across (Gioglio & Walter, 2014). “After all,” said John Renard, the organizer of Earthworks 2008, a global cartoon competition, “humor is often a valuable key in the struggle to win hearts and minds” (Green, 2008). In sum, as cartoons provide the entertaining and amusing contents to keep the public engaged
and are often used to appeal to the public, the current study therefore expects that cartoons
have the potential to be the most captivating for the public in comparison with the other three
types of visual representations and could also generate higher perceived issue importance (see
table 1 below for the predicted effects of the conditions on perceived Self-efficacy and issue
importance).
H4a: Cartoons are the most appealing visuals compared to the other three types of visual
representations
H4b: Impact-oriented cartoons depicting plastic pollution will lead to higher issue
importance
Table 1. Predicted Effects of the Eight Conditions on Perceived Self-efficacy and Issue Importance
Experimental condition
Mediators
Self-Efficacy Issue Importance Infographic
Impact +
Solution +
Impact + Solution Video Impact + Solution + Photograph Impact - + Solution +
Note. + indicates a positive main impact. – indicates a negative impact. Blank spaces indicate no main impact. The main effects are predicted by comparing impact-oriented visuals with solution-oriented visuals.
Perceived self-efficacy and perceived issue importance as mediator
Looking at possible mediation indirect effect, the current study builds from the prior
researches (O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009; Hart & Feldman, 2016) to examine how visuals
may indirectly affect individual behavioral intentions through the mediators of perceived
self-efficacy and issue importance. The concept of perceived self-self-efficacy, first coined by
Bandura, are “beliefs in one’s capacity to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (Bandura, 1977, p.3). That is, individuals have high level beliefs in their capacity to do something about environmental problems. The influence of
self-efficacy on behavioral change has been widely documented in the health domain since 1970s.
Previous study (Rimal, 2000) indicated that perceived self-efficacy mediates the relations
between health knowledge and healthful habits. A number of theories in social psychology,
including social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977) further strengthened the finding that those
who have high degree of self-efficacy are more likely to adopt issue-related behaviors or
self-efficacy. Later in several environmental studies, researchers have concluded the similar
results. The stronger sense of perceived self-efficacy people believe they have, the higher
possibility they would act effectively in environmentally responsible way (Taylor & Todd,
1995; Chen, 2014). Self-efficacy as the mediator variable is also proved to be the potential
mechanism for enhancing further environmental behaviors, known as spillover effect (Lauren,
Smith, Louis & Dean, 2017). While researches in health domain and environmental domain
mainly discussed the critical role of perceived self-efficacy on individual sphere, several
studies (Rosenstone & Hansen, 2003; Hart & Feldman, 2016) suggested that people would as
well have the tendency to perform behaviors such as signing petition and participating in rally
or protest in political sphere.
Issue important, on the other hand, also plays a vital contributor to people’s
pro-environmental behaviors in political sphere. The effects of issue important on behavioral
change have been prominently discussed in American political domain (Epstein & Segal,
2000). Earlier research on anti-nuclear war activity by Fox and Schofield (1989) suggested
that high perceived issue important significantly links to the increased anti-nuclear behavioral
intention and actual behavior. Later study (Weaver, 1991) further proved that increased
perceptions of issue important are found to have a significant correlation with participating in
political behavior related to the issue such as signing petition and voting. Overall, individuals’
themselves as highly efficacious as well as people perceive the relevant issue as highly
important.
Extending from the indirect effects from the previous studies, Hart and Feldman (2016)
reported a significant result that the solution-orient as well as text-based information with
action message does increase individuals’ intentions to be more inclined to engage in energy
conservation behaviors and political behaviors through the mediator of perceived
self-efficacy. Hereby, considering the previous discussion on each visual representation, the
current study expects that the solution-oriented visuals, especially infographics, videos and
photographs will have a significant indirect effect on not only individual behavior intention in
reducing the usage of plastic product but also their intention to take up political actions
through the mediator of perceived self-efficacy. As with issue importance, the results from Hart and Feldman’s research showed no significant effects. However, the previous Q-sort study carried out by O'Neill et al. (2013) suggested the impact-oriented images have a
positive association with greater perceived issue importance. Moreover, considering different
types of visuals are used in the current study, the study might lead to different results. Hence,
the current study predicts that all impact-oriented visuals will all have a significant indirect
effect on not only individual behavior intention in reducing the usage of plastic product but
also the intention to take up political action through the mediator of perceived issue
H5a: Solution-oriented visuals, especially infographics, videos and photographs have a
significant indirect effect on not only individual behavioral intention (i.e. reducing the usage
of plastic products) but also the intention to take up political actions through the mediator of
perceived self-efficacy
H5b: Impact-oriented visuals have a significant indirect effect on not only individual
behavioral intention (i.e. reducing the usage of plastic products) but also the intention to take
up political action through the mediator of perceived issue importance.
Method
A total of 228 participants were recruited using social media network by posting survey
hyperlink, and were invited to participate in a 10 minutes online survey experiment through
Qualtrics Panels. Qualtrics Panels provides opt-in online panels that allow researchers to
recruit more diverse samples (Peifer & Garrett, 2014). Gender, age and educational
background were collected to ensure the diversity of the participants.
Participants had an average age of 28.92 years old (SD=9.58). There were 71.1%
females and 26.3% males. Median education was bachelor’s degree (54.4%), and 33.8% of
participants had master’s degree. Regarding the understanding of plastic pollution and
perceived environmental identity, 33.3% of participants somewhat understand the issue of
of participants somewhat agree that they are environmental persons and 32% of participants
totally agree. 36% of participants agree that they are the type of person who would be
involved in environmental behaviors, 29.4% of participants somewhat agree. Moreover, the
survey performed randomization on Qualtrics so that each condition would be randomly and
evenly presented to each participant. The randomization was quite successful and eight
conditions were homogeneous regarding age, education and gender (see Table 2 below).
Table 2. Sample characteristics
Age Education Gender
(M) (SD) Bachelor’s Master’s Females Males
Full sample (n=228) 28.92 9.58 54.4% 33.8% 71.1% 26.3% impact-oriented infographics (n=28) 32 13.04 57.14% 35.71% 75% 25% solution-oriented infographics (n=29) 27.79 8.45 51.72% 34.48% 68.97% 31.03% impact-oriented cartoons (n=29) 29.83 10.34 65.52% 17.24% 75.86% 17.24% solution-oriented cartoons (n=30) 28.17 7.16 53.33% 36.67% 70% 30% impact-oriented videos (n=26) 29.46 12.45 50% 34.61% 76.92% 23.08%
solution-oriented videos (n=25) 27.6 4.79 56% 32% 52% 40% impact-oriented photographs (n=31) 29.70 11.44 61.29% 32.26% 77.42% 19.35% solution-oriented photographs (n=30) 26.83 5.40 40% 46.67% 70% 26.67%
Note. The table only presents the highlighted data. “Rather not answer” in gender, and “less than high school”, “high school”, “doctoral degree” and “professional degree” in education are excluded in the table.
Stimuli
Eight experimental conditions were created by manipulating two different aspects of the
visuals: plastic pollution impact and plastic pollution solution. Four types of visuals, namely
infographic, cartoon, video and photograph were manipulated to focus on the impacts plastic
pollution have on the oceans and marine life and solutions that could be taken to minimize the
ocean plastic pollution. The solution-oriented visuals were chosen that mainly portrayed
beach and shorelines cleaning up. Furthermore, in order to make sure each visual is as
comparable as possible and minimize the possibility of bias that might have on the results, the
chosen visuals not only portrayed the same issue, but also offered the same information. Each
visual would couple with the same text that has already embedded in infographic, explaining
the impact of ocean plastic pollution and the solution that could be taken to address the issue.
Overall, there were eight conditions (infographics: impact, solution; cartoons: impact,
solution; videos: impact, solution; photographs: impact, solution).
Measurement and Procedure
The current study extended from the previous studies (O’Neil and Nicholson-Cole, 2009; O’Neill et al. ,2013; Metag et al, 2016; Chapman et al., 2016; Hart & Feldman, 2016) of public perceptions on visuals regarding plastic pollution across two variables: perceived issue
importance and perceived self-efficacy. Hence, the measurements used in the current study
for issue importance, self-efficacy and individual and political behavioral change are very
similar to the ones used in the prior studies.
Once consenting to participate in the survey, participants were first requested to answer
demographic questions, and then they were asked questions about their perceived level of
understanding of plastic pollution, and perceived level of environmental identity and
environmental behavior. Kollmuss and Agyeman (2010) defined environmental person and environmental behavior as a person “that consciously seeks to minimize the negative impact of his/her actions on the natural and built world (e.g. reduce plastic production or minimize
resource and energy consumption)” (p. 240). Based on the definition, participants were asked
to answer on a 7-point scale ranged from (1)strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree with the following statements: “I consider myself as an environmental person”(M=5.13,SD=1.26); “To
engage in environmental behaviors is an important part of who I am”(M=4.90, SD=1.47); “I am type of person who would be involved in environmental behaviors”(M=5.16, SD=1.36).
The scale used showed high reliability (α=.918).
Next step, participants were randomly assigned to view one type of the four visual
materials that portrayed either plastic pollution impact or solution. After exposing to the
visual material, participants were asked to answer the questions related to it and make the
evaluation on their affective level, perceived level of issue important, self-efficacy and
behavior change. To measure the mediator variable of affective level, issue important and
self-efficacy, along with the dependent variable of behavior change, the following measures
were applied.
Affective Level. Participants were ask to rate their affective level from (1) really negative to
(7) really positive on a 7-point scale (α=.562) to the following statement: “How does this visual material make you feel?”(M=3.23, SD=1.62). Likewise, participants were then asked to rate their feeling toward the visual on a 7-point scale from (1) very boring to (2) very
appealing to the following statement: “Do you find this visual material boring or appealing?”
(M=4.68, SD=1.36).
Issue importance. Three 7-point scales were designed based on previous studies (Lazard &
level of perceptions, willingness and motivation from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly
agree to the following statements on the 7-point scales (α=.773): “Does this visual material make you feel the plastic pollution is an important issue?”(M=5.41, SD=1.37); “After viewing the visual material, how motivated do you feel to seek out more information about plastic pollution?” (M=4.24, SD=1.58); “How much more or less willing would you be to share this visual material with friends on social media?” (M=3.94, SD=1.69).
Self-efficacy. Three 7-point scales were designed based on previous studies (Hart & Feldman,
2016; Chapman et al., 2016). Participants were asked to rate their level of agreement from (1)
strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree (α=.450) with the following statements: “The visual
material make me feel that I can do something about plastic pollution (M=4.49, SD=1.71)”, “I feel confident that I could help reducing plastic pollution” (M=4.96, SD=1.66) and “I feel capable of reducing the usage of plastic products”(M=4.84, SD=1.58).
Behavioral Change. Individual behavioral change intentions were measured across two
domains: personal environmental behavior and personal political behavior. First, participants answered the question “does this visual material make you want to change your own behavior to reduce the usage of plastic products?” (M=4.82, SD=1.54) on a 7-point scale (α=.895)
ranged from (1) not at all to (7) very much. Then, participants were provided a list of actions that participants were informed would “minimize their impact on plastic pollution.”
strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree (α=.884) to each of the actions listed under the
following statement: how likely or unlikely it is that this visual material would trigger you to
engage in the following actions in the next 12 months: (1) bring your own shopping bag
(M=5.65, SD=1.57); (2) stop using straws (M=5.07, SD=1.74); (3) skip plastic produce bags
(M=5.03, SD=1.69); (4) buy/use less disposable products (M=4.95, SD=1.70); (5) recycle
(M=5.62, SD=1.64); (6) clean up beaches and shorelines (M=4.25, SD=1.93).
Personal political behavior were firstly measured by asking participants to answer the
question that whether the visual material would trigger them to support government policies
to tackle plastic pollution from a 7 point scale ranged from (1) much less supportive to (7)
much more supportive (α=.871). Later, as with personal environmental behavior, participants
were asked to rate their level of agreement to a list of actions in the political sphere that
participants could take to tackle the problem of plastic pollution. The statement went “how
likely or unlikely is it that the visual material would trigger you to engage in the following actions in the next 12 months?”. The lists of actions were (1) contact government officials to urge them to take action to ban plastic products (M=3.12, SD=1.75); (2) participate in a rally
or protest in support of action to ban plastic use (M=3.59, SD=1.90); (3) sign a petition in
support of taking action to ban plastic use (M=4.98, SD=1.76); (4) join or volunteer with an
organization working to reduce plastic use (M=4.11, SD=1.85); (5) donate money to an
Analysis
The current study conducted analysis in two steps. The first steps, for the main effects
analysis, consisted of a series of one-way ANOVA’s to investigate the main effects of
infographics, cartoons, videos and photographs depicting both plastic pollution impact and
plastic pollution solution on affective reactions, perceived self-efficacy, perceived issue
importance and understanding of images. Post Hoc Comparison using the LSD test and
independent sample T-Tests were conducted subsequently to compare the mean scores to test
for between-groups differences. The second step consisted of a mediation analysis to examine
the hypotheses that self-efficacy and issue importance mediate the effect of eight variables on
individual behavior and political behavior. The mediation analysis was conducted by using the
PROCESS macro for SPSS. To test the direct and indirect effects, regression coefficients and
bootstrapped confidence intervals were provided by PROCESS. Overall, 1000 bootstrap
samples were used for bootstrap confidence interval calculations. Indirect effects were only
proved to be significant if both lower 95% confidence intervals (LCI) and upper 95%
confidence intervals (UCI) are either above zero or below zero. Otherwise, there is no
significant indirect effect.
Results
Regarding how well the each stimuli could covey the issue of plastic pollution, there is a
significantly difference between the eight condition, F(7,220)=2.154, p<.05. Independent
sample T-test revealed that the impact-oriented video (M=5.69, SD=1.26) conveyed the issue
of plastic pollution better than impact-oriented infographic (M=4.50, SD=1.37); t(52)=-3.32,
p=.002 and the solution-oriented video (M=4.80, SD=1.50); t(49)=2.306, p=.025). And
surprisingly, the impact-oriented photograph (M=5.29, SD=1.40) was also considered to
convey the issue of plastic pollution better than impact-oriented infographic (M=4.50,
SD=1.37); t(57)=-2.19, p=.033. Regarding how complicated the different stimuli were
perceived, there is a significant difference at the p<.05 level between the eight conditions,
F(7,220)=2.435, p=.02. Independent sample t-test’s indicated that the infographic (M=5.18,
SD=1.68) was the most complicated to understand and more complicated than the video
(M=6.08, SD=1.41); t(52)=-2.119, p=.039 and photograph (M=6.32, SD=1.14); t(47)=-3.032,
p=.004 in the impact-oriented conditions. The results therefore partially prove H3a that
infographics would covey the issue of plastic pollution better than the other types of visual
representations. However, infographics are not easily understood by the public.
2. Affective responses to visuals
There was a significant influence of the eight conditions on participants’ affective reaction
to the visual materials in the different conditions, F(7,220)=13.933, p<.001. Post-hoc
a positive emotional reactions while the impact-oriented visual materials generated a rather
negative emotional reactions. To be specific, the solution-oriented infographic (M=4.76,
SD=.912) generated more positive emotional reactions than the impact-oriented infographic
(M=3.54, SD=1.55); t(43)=-3.612, p=.001. The solution-oriented video (M=4.40, SD=1.76)
led to more positive emotional responses than the impact-oriented video (M=2.15, SD=1.26);
t(43)=-5.237, p<.001. The solution-oriented photograph (M=3.13, SD=1.46), as well, was
considered to be more positive than the impact-oriented photograph (M=2.10, SD=1.08);
t(59)=-3170, p=.002. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the
solution-oriented video and the solution-oriented infographic. Overall, as expected, the results
prove H1a that the solution-oriented visual materials generate positive emotional reactions
while the impact-oriented visual materials generate rather negative emotional reactions.
In terms of the question regarding whether the image is boring or appealing, there is a
significant difference between the eight conditions, F(7,220)=2.558, p=.015. Independent
sample T-Test’s indicated that participants found the solution-oriented cartoon (M=5,
SD=1.53); t(58)=2.87, p=.006 and the solution-oriented video (M=5.16, SD=1.41);
t(53)=3.34, p=.002 more appealing than the solution-oriented photograph (M=3.97,
SD=1.25). The results are in line with H4a that cartoons are the most appealing images
compared to the other types of visual representations.
conditions on self-efficacy and issue importance by conducting one-way ANOVA’s. First
looking at efficacy, there is a large significant difference across conditions regarding
self-efficacy at the p<.05 level, F(7, 220)=2.62, p=.013. The following Post Hoc Comparison
using the LSD test indicated that the mean score for the impact-oriented infographic (M=4.18,
SD=1.66) was significantly different from the solution-oriented infographic (M=5.28,
SD=1.33). The impact-oriented video (M=3.77, SD=1.925), as well, was significantly
different from the solution-oriented video (M=5.20, SD=1.080). Also, it is worth mentioning
that the post hoc test comparing the solution-oriented infographic (M=5.28, SD=1.33) and the
solution-oriented photograph (M=4.43, SD=1.547) approached significance (p=.054). To
further examine the between-groups differences, independent sample T-Test’s were conducted
and further revealed that the solution-oriented image was associated with a greater sense of
self-efficacy than the impact-oriented image no matter the form of visuals. To be specific, the
solution-oriented infographic (M=5.28, SD=1.33) led to higher perceptions of self-efficacy
than the impact-oriented infographic (M=4.18, SD=1.66); t(55)=-2.76, p=.008. The
solution-oriented video (M=5.20, SD=1.08) also led to significantly higher perceptions of self-efficacy
than the impact-oriented video (M=3.77, SD=1.93); t(40)=-3.29, p=.002 (See figure 1 for a
visual representation of the differences). In terms of the difference between different forms of
visuals, independent sample T-Test’s indicated that there is actually a significant difference
solution-oriented infographic (M=5.28, SD=1.33) led to significantly higher perceptions of
self-efficacy than the solution-oriented photograph (M=4.43, SD=1.55); t(57)=2.24, p=.029. To
sum up, the results prove H2a and H3b, suggesting that the solution-oriented video and the
solution-oriented infographic depicting plastic pollution lead to higher perceptions of
self-efficacy (see figure 1 below for a visual representation of the differences).
Figure 1. Mean levels of perceived self-efficacy for different visuals on plastic pollution solution
Looking at issue importance, there was a significant effect of the eight visual conditions
on issue importance, F(7, 220)=2.398, p=.022. Post-hoc tests using the LSD test indicated that
the mean differences between the impact-oriented video and the impact- oriented infographic
were statistically significant (p=.003), and the solution-oriented video and the solution-
oriented infographic were significantly different (p=.042). Independent sample T-Test’s were
further conducted and showed that the impact-oriented video (M=6.08, SD=1.23) generated
greater perceptions of issue importance than the impact-oriented infographic (M=4.96,
4 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5 5.2 5.4
Infographic Cartoon Video Photograph
Pe rv ie d s elf -e ff ic acy Solution-related visuals
SD=1.64); t(50)=-2.83, p=.007. And the solution-oriented video (M=5.68, SD=1.145), as
well, led to an increased sense of issue importance compared to the solution-oriented
infographic (M=4.93, SD=1.307); t(52)=-2.22, p=.031 (see figure 2 and figure 3 below for a
visual representation of the differences). The results partially confirm the expectations. Only
the impact-oriented video depicting plastic pollution were found to significantly generate a
greater sense of issue importance (H2b). And surprisingly, even the solution-oriented video
depicting plastic pollution led to higher perceptions of issue importance.
Figure 2. Mean levels of perceived issue importance for different visuals on plastic pollution impact
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Infographic Cartoon Video Photograph
P erc ived iss ue im porta nc e impact-related visuals
Figure 3. Mean levels of perceived issue importance for different visuals on plastic pollution solution
Last but the not least, the current study examined relationship between different visuals
depicting plastic pollution solution and visuals depicting plastic pollution impact. According
to independent sample T-Test’s, overall, images depicting plastic pollution solution (M=4.84,
SD=1.48) were associated with greater perception of self-efficacy than images depicting
plastic pollution impact (M=4.13, SD=1.85); t(215)=-3.202, p=.002, whereas there was no
any significant difference regarding issue importance. Looking at affective reactions, as
expected, images depicting plastic pollution solution (M=3.85, SD=1.609) generated strong
positive emotional responses compared to images depicting plastic pollution impact (M=1.39,
SD=1.39); t(221)=-.6.219, p<.001. H1a are therefore proven.
After the main effect tests, the next step was to conduct an analysis with PROCESS to
investigate whether self-efficacy and issue importance mediate the effects of the different
visuals on individual behavior and political behavior (see figure 4 below for a conceptual map
4.4 4.6 4.8 5 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.8
Infographic Cartoon Video Photograph
pe rc eived iss ue im porta nc e solution-related visuals
of the indirect effects model tested in this study).
Figure 4. Conceptual map of the indirect effects
Looking at self-efficacy, consistent with the ANOVA results reported above, regression
analysis using PROCESS indicated that the solution-oriented infographic and the solution
oriented video were significantly associated with greater perceptions of self-efficacy
compared to the oriented infographic (B=1.10, SE=.3977, p=.0079) and the
impact-oriented video (B=1.43, SE=.4395, p=.001). In addition, consistent with the ANOVA results
reported above, the solution-oriented infographic was associated with greater perceptions of
self-efficacy compared to the solution-oriented photograph (B=-.843, SE=.3765, p=.002).
Looking at issue importance next, consistent with the ANOVA results reported above, the
impact-oriented video generated stronger perceptions of issue importance compared to the
impact-oriented infographic (B=1.1126, SE=.3976, p=.007). The solution-oriented video, as
well, led to greater perceptions of issue importance (B=.7490, SE=.3370, p=.031) compared
Looking at the relationship between the mediators and the dependent variables, perceived
self-efficacy had a significant positive association with individual behavior (B=.3193,
SE=.1174, p=.008) and political behavior (B=.3900, SE=.1119, p=.001). Surprisingly, while
testing for the effect of the solution-oriented video compared to the impact-oriented video,
there is no significant effect between self-efficacy and individual behavior and political
behavior here (only including the respondents in these two conditions in this analysis). On the
other hand, perceived issue importance also had a significant positive association with
individual behavior (B=.7172, SE=.1106, p<.001) and political behavior (B=.3108, SE=.1279,
p=.019).
Looking at the indirect effect, the solution-oriented infographic had a significant indirect
effect on individual behavior (B=.2031, LCI=.0764, UCI=.3621) and political behavior
(B=.1958, LCI=,0971, UCI=.8804), through the mediator of self-efficacy compared to the
impact-oriented infographic. The impact-oriented video and the solution-oriented video had
significantly positive indirect effect on individual behavior (B=.3122, LCI=.2068,
UCI=1.4564) and political behavior (B=.2012, LLCI=.0545, UCI=.8922) compared to the
impact-oriented infographic and the solution-oriented infographic, through the mediator of
issue importance. As a result, the H5a and H5b partially hold true as solution-oriented
infographic does have a significant indirect effect through the mediator of perceived
mediator of issue importance.
Looking at the overall solution-oriented visuals and the impact-oriented visuals combined,
the solution-oriented visuals had a significantly positive effect on self-efficacy (B=.7105,
SE=.2219, P=.002) and self-efficacy was significantly associated with individual behavior
(B=.3591, SE=.0564, p<.001) and political behavior (B=.1720, SE=.0507, p<.001). These
results indicated that the indirect effect was significant. The solution-related visuals were
associated with greater individual behavior (b=.0923, LCI=.0952, UCI=.4673), and political
behavior (B=.0525, LCI=.034, UCI=.2436) and mediated by self-efficacy. However, no
independent variables had an indirect effect through perceived issue importance on individual
and political behavior. The results prove H5a but partially rejected H5b that not all
impacted-oriented visuals had an indirect effect through perceived issue importance on individual and
political behavior.
General Discussion
This is the first study that experimentally tests the impact of a range of different types of
visual representations on perceived self-efficacy and issue importance regarding plastic
pollution. The current study also builds on previous studies regarding the indirect effects of
visuals on individual behavioral change and political behavior change through the mediators
of perceived self-efficacy and issue importance. Together the results offer support for the
In accord with the expectations based on the previous studies (Hart & Feldman, 2016;
O'Neill et al., 2013; O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009; Chapman et al., 2016), a greater positive affective responses in participants’ attitude are observed in the solution-oriented visuals, whereas the impact-oriented visuals are found to generate negative affective
responses. And among four types of visual representations, cartoons and videos are found
particularly more captivating for the public in comparison with infographics and photographs.
Surprisingly, the result on how complicated the each stimuli were perceived runs counter to
the expectation. Participants generally reported that they found the impact-oriented
infographic complicated to understand and didn’t think it conveyed the issue of plastic
pollution better than the impact-oriented photograph. Even though infographics were
expected to make complex issues more comprehensible, the integration of visualization, data
and text messages may however run the risk of rendering the images more complex and
confusing for audiences to process (de Haan, et al., 2017).
Looking at self-efficacy, the results confirm the hypotheses and replicate the results from
previous studies using the same experiment approach and a Q-sort approach (Hart &
Feldman, 2016; O'Neill et al., 2013; O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009) that the
solution-oriented visuals depicting plastic pollution have the potential to evoke people’s feeling to do
something about plastic pollution. The current study particularly finds that solution-oriented
self-efficacy compared to impact-oriented infographics and impact-oriented videos, while
solution-oriented cartoons and solution-oriented photographs don’t really show the significant
results. Additionally, regarding the visual representations used, among four types of visuals
representations, the solution-oriented infographics performs better than the solution-oriented
photographs in increasing perceptions of self-efficacy. It is highly possible that infographics
using graphs and charts to explain possible plastic pollution solutions are perceived to be
more engaging and motivating than photographs.
Looking at issue importance, the results runs counter to the previous experiment study
(Hart & Feldman, 2016) suggesting the impact-oriented visuals have no significant impact on
the perceptions of issue importance. The results proved H2b that videos depicting plastic
pollution impact perform better than other three types of visuals in promoting a sense of
importance about plastic pollution. Additionally, the current study also finds that even videos
depicting plastic pollution solution have significant impact on the perceptions of issue
importance. This engaging nature of the videos holds true as studies suggested that videos
have the potential to influence awareness (Acierno, Rheingold, Resnick & Stark-Riemer,
2004; Occa & Suggs, 2016). Besides, the fact that videos could lead to higher perceptions of
issue importance may be due to the core characteristics of video which tend to be more vivid
and contain more movement and noise, and thus allow people to easily resonate with the issue
Looking at indirect effects on behavioral change, the current study is also in line with the
communication guide and previous study findings (O'Neill & Nicholson-Cole, 2009; O'Neill
et al., 2013; Metag et al., 2016; Chapman et al., 2016; Hart & Feldman, 2016) suggesting that
the solution-oriented visuals coupling with information highlighting possible behavioral
actions have potential for motivating audiences’ behavioral change. The current study finds
that infographics that integrate graphs and visual information as well as concrete possible
solutions have the greater potential to motivate individual behavioral change as well as
increase the willingness to participate in political actions through the mediator of perceived
self-efficacy. And overall, as predicted, the four types of visuals depicting plastic pollution
solution are found to be the most motivating for individual to change individual behavior and
join political actions through the mediation of self-efficacy. The findings strengthen the
importance of self-efficacy as the mediation role in enhancing environmental behavior and
political behavior since previous study (Chapman et al, 2016) without mediation of
self-efficacy test suggested that images of solutions were the least motivating for participants. On
the other hand, through the mediator of issue-importance, videos depicting both plastic
pollution impact and plastic pollution solution scores higher on influencing individual
behavior and political behavior compared to infographics. The chosen video showing real-life
disturbing footage of plastics floating on the oceans as well as inspiring beach cleanup
importance and intentions for behavioral change. The results aligned with the literatures
which suggested videos have the potential to immediate influence issue awareness and further
provoke behavioral change.
Taken together, the results from the current study demonstrate that visual communication
do matter while communicating pro-environmental issues. The findings particularly suggest
that videos and infographics are particularly the most effective visual communication tools
compared to photographs and cartoons to increase public perceptions of self-efficacy and
issue importance, and further prompt people to take individual actions and participate in
political actions. Cartoons and photographs, on the other hand, are considered to be more
captivating for audience and could easily convey the issues. Furthermore, as all the previous
studies have suggested, visuals depicting solution are no doubt the best to address
environmental issues to increase public perceptions of self-efficacy, and also important for
motivating actions no matter in individual sphere or political sphere. The solution-oriented
images are particularly effective if the visuals couple with the action messages. At the same
time, the findings of this study question about the reliability of previous studies that imagery
has no significant role in influencing perceived issue importance (Hart & Feldman, 2016). Also, the current study doesn’t replicate the previous research that the images of plastic pollution impact could possibly cause boomerang effect on efficacy (O'Neill &
Limitations
As with other studies, the current study has three drawbacks. Firstly, as the current study
examines the effects of different types of visual representations, each particular visual
material was chosen to represent each visual category. Even though the current study has tried to select the visuals that are as comparable as possible, it’s still possible that the unique
characteristic of each visual material would contribute to different results. Moreover, departed
from previous studies that are mainly focus on climate change, the current student focuses on
different environmental issue and as a result, it is more likely to result in different outcomes.
Further studies are needed to continue to investigate the effects on perception and behavioral
change by using a wider scope of visuals. Secondly, the current study only examines the
intention to behavioral change instead of investigating actual behavioral change. The current
study is therefore unable to prove whether the actual behaviors are actually taken by
individuals. Lastly, the current study doesn’t test the moderated mediation effects of
environmental identity and environmental behavior variable before exposing participants to
each visual materials. Depending on different levels of people’s perceived environmental
identity, the effects of each visual representation on behavioral change via mediator of
self-efficacy and issue importance might differ. In addition, the current study is the first one to use
experimental method to test the effects of different visual representations. It’s also importance
In summary, the results would be of interest to governments and pro-environmental
organizations as the study offers insights into the effective usage of visual communication
regarding environmental issues on public perception and behavior change. These insights
could also further provide further guidelines for pro-environmental campaigners to effectively
and strategically redesign their campaign messages and broader development with greater
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