P Sol Hart
Biographic Data
| ID | 4257795 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P Sol Hart |
| GIVEN NAMES | P Sol |
| FAMILY NAME | Hart |
| SIGNATURE | HART P S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3318-9818 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 406 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
A registered report megastudy on the persuasiveness of the most-cited climate messages
Unequal Risks, Unequal Responses: Differential Effects of Emphasizing Race Versus Class Disparities in News Stories About Climate Impacts
We investigated how news articles discussing unequal impacts of climate change due to race versus class influence beliefs and support for action. We conducted two online survey experiments focusing on flooding (Study 1) and heat waves (Study 2). In Study 1, White participants and those with high levels of symbolic racism had lower levels of belief and support when exposed to the race-focused condition, although these interactions were not as cons…
Go Negative for Clicks: Negative Sentiment in Environmental Advocacy Emails Is Associated with Increased Public Engagement
In light of environmental challenges, environmental advocacy organizations are seeking optimal ways to increase public engagement. There is debate over whether positive or negative sentiment in advocacy messages is more effective. We investigate this by examining how positive and negative sentiment in advocacy messages sent by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) through email was associated with the frequency with which recipients opened the ema…
Testing How Militaristic and Xenophobic Language Affects Engagement with Facebook Posts about Invasive Species
Invasive species are considered a significant threat to biodiversity and economic activities. Concerned stakeholders have adopted militaristic metaphors and xenophobic language to raise public awareness about the issue, yet communication theory provides conflicting guidance on whether this is likely to be effective. This research insight analyzes over 400,000 Facebook posts from North American stakeholders to find that stakeholder Facebook pages …
Climate Change Advocacy and Engagement on Social Media
This study examines how 21 leading environmental organizations framed climate change on Facebook and how these frames were associated with public engagement through reactions (e.g., likes), shares, and comments on the posts. We find that environmental nongovernmental organizations’ (NGOs) posts about climate change tend to emphasize the environmental impacts of climate change, political actions that are being taken by individuals and groups to ad…
Climate Change Consensus Messages Cause Reactance
Several recent studies have debated whether climate change consensus messages cause reactance, although they sometimes employ different procedures and measurement. This study uses procedures and measures from competing studies to allow for a comparison of the respective approaches. We find that climate change consensus messages cause reactance, particularly among Republicans and those who do not believe in anthropogenic climate change. These find…
The Influence of Flooding Imagery and Party Cues on Perceived Threat, Collective Efficacy, and Intentions for Political Action to Address Climate Change
This study investigates how episodic and thematic flooding imagery and political party cues in climate change news stories influence risk perceptions, collective efficacy perceptions, and intended political action. We found that imagery and party cues had significant total effects on perceived flooding threat but not on perceived climate change threat. Specifically, episodic imagery (but not thematic imagery) increased perceived flooding threat, …
Moral hazard or not? The effects of learning about carbon dioxide removal on perceptions of climate mitigation in the United States
Can’t You All Just Get Along? Effects of Scientific Disagreement and Incivility on Attention to and Trust in Science
Disagreement and incivility are increasingly common in science communication. While previous work has explored effects on issue attitudes, it has not examined how disagreement and incivility in news coverage influence attention to and trust in science. In this study, we investigate how civil and uncivil disagreement about non-politicized issues affects attention to science news, evaluations of research, and scientific trust. Results reveal that d…
The Benefit of Focusing on Air Pollution Instead of Climate Change: How Discussing Power Plant Emissions in the Context of Air Pollution, Rather than Climate Change, Influences Perceived Benefits, Cos…
This experiment examines how framing power plant emissions in terms of air pollution or climate change, and in terms of health or environmental impacts, influences perceived benefits and costs of policies to reduce emissions and intentions to take political action that supports such policies. A moderated-mediation model reveals that focusing on air pollution, instead of climate change, has a positive significant indirect influence on intended pol…
Politicization and Polarization in Covid-19 News Coverage
This study examines the level of politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news in U.S. newspapers and televised network news from March to May 2020. Using multiple computer-assisted content analytic approaches, we find that newspaper coverage is highly politicized, network news coverage somewhat less so, and both newspaper and network news coverage are highly polarized. We find that politicians appear in newspaper coverage more frequently than…
Politicization and Polarization in Climate Change News Content, 1985-2017
Despite concerns about politicization and polarization in climate change news, previous work has not been able to offer evidence concerning long-term trends. Using computer-assisted content analyses of all climate change articles from major newspapers in the United States between 1985 and 2017, we find that media representations of climate change have become (a) increasingly politicized, whereby political actors are increasingly featured and scie…
Is There Any Hope? How Climate Change News Imagery and Text Influence Audience Emotions and Support for Climate Mitigation Policies
Using a national sample, this study experimentally tests the effects of news visuals and texts that emphasize either the causes and impacts of climate change or actions that can be taken to address climate change. We test the effects of variations in text and imagery on discrete emotions (i.e., hope, fear, and anger) and, indirectly, on support for climate mitigation policies. Political ideology is examined as a moderator. The findings indicate t…
Broadening Exposure to Climate Change News? How Framing and Political Orientation Interact to Influence Selective Exposure
Two online news browsing experiments were conducted with national samples of U.S. adults to test the effects of six different climate change frames on selective exposure to climate change news; the frames emphasized the implications of climate change for either public health, the economy, national security, the environment, morality, or political conflict. Effects were compared between liberal-Democrats, moderate-Independents, and conservative-Re…
In consensus we trust? Persuasive effects of scientific consensus communication
Scholars have recently suggested that communicating levels of scientific consensus (e.g. the percentage of scientists who agree about human-caused climate change) can shift public opinion toward the dominant scientific opinion. Initial research suggested that consensus communication effectively reduces public skepticism. However, other research failed to find a persuasive effect for those with conflicting prior beliefs. This study enters this con…
What drives support for self-driving car technology in the United States
Recent advances in automotive technology have made fully automated self-driving cars technologically feasible. Despite offering many benefits such as increased safety, improved fuel efficiency, and greater disability access, public support for self-driving cars remains low. While previous studies find that demographic factors such as age and sex influence self-driving car support, limited research has examined variables that are well known to pre…
Climate change as a polarizing cue: Framing effects on public support for low-carbon energy policies
Polarizing news? Representations of threat and efficacy in leading US newspapers’ coverage of climate change
This study examines non-editorial news coverage in leading US newspapers as a source of ideological differences on climate change. A quantitative content analysis compared how the threat of climate change and efficacy for actions to address it were represented in climate change coverage across The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today between 2006 and 2011. Results show that The Wall Street Journal was least …
How geographic distance and political ideology interact to influence public perception of unconventional oil/natural gas development
The Impact of Climate Change–Related Imagery and Text on Public Opinion and Behavior Change
This experimental study investigates how imagery and text in news coverage of climate change affect perceptions of issue importance, efficacy, and intentions to conserve energy and engage in climate change-related political behavior. The results reveal that images of solar panels and texts that discuss actions to address climate change increase individuals’ perceptions of efficacy. Perceived efficacy and issue importance each have a positive asso…
Using Political Efficacy Messages to Increase Climate Activism: The Mediating Role of Emotions
Using an online experiment with a national sample, this study tests the effects of political efficacy messages on two types of climate-related political participation via the discrete emotions of hope, fear, and anger and compares these effects across ideological groups. Relative to a message that discusses only negative climate impacts, messages that emphasize the internal, external, or response efficacy of political actions to address climate c…
Public opinion on energy development: The interplay of issue framing, top-of-mind associations, and political ideology
Polarized frames on “climate change” and “global warming” across countries and states: Evidence from Twitter big data
Extending the Impacts of Hostile Media Perceptions: Influences on Discussion and Opinion Polarization in the Context of Climate Change
Researchers recently have begun to examine how hostile media perceptions may promote discursive activities aimed at correcting the media’s perceived negative influence. We use nationally representative survey data to test a moderated-mediation model that finds that hostile media perceptions significantly affect support for climate mitigation policies through the mediator of discussion and that the link between discussion and policy support is mod…
Threat Without Efficacy? Climate Change on U.S. Network News
This study investigates how U.S. network television news stories have conveyed threat and efficacy information about climate change, both directly and indirectly, through the discussion and framing of climate change impacts and actions. Results show that while impacts and actions are discussed independently in a majority of broadcasts, they are rarely discussed in the same broadcast. Moreover, while news coverage frequently conveys the threat of …
Politicization and Polarization in Covid-19 News Coverage
This study examines the level of politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news in U.S. newspapers and televised network news from March to May 2020. Using multiple computer-assisted content analytic approaches, we find that newspaper coverage is highly politicized, network news coverage somewhat less so, and both newspaper and network news coverage are highly polarized. We find that politicians appear in newspaper coverage more frequently than…
Politicization and Polarization in Climate Change News Content, 1985-2017
Despite concerns about politicization and polarization in climate change news, previous work has not been able to offer evidence concerning long-term trends. Using computer-assisted content analyses of all climate change articles from major newspapers in the United States between 1985 and 2017, we find that media representations of climate change have become (a) increasingly politicized, whereby political actors are increasingly featured and scie…
Polarized frames on “climate change” and “global warming” across countries and states: Evidence from Twitter big data
Climate change as a polarizing cue: Framing effects on public support for low-carbon energy policies
Threat Without Efficacy? Climate Change on U.S. Network News
This study investigates how U.S. network television news stories have conveyed threat and efficacy information about climate change, both directly and indirectly, through the discussion and framing of climate change impacts and actions. Results show that while impacts and actions are discussed independently in a majority of broadcasts, they are rarely discussed in the same broadcast. Moreover, while news coverage frequently conveys the threat of …
Using Political Efficacy Messages to Increase Climate Activism: The Mediating Role of Emotions
Using an online experiment with a national sample, this study tests the effects of political efficacy messages on two types of climate-related political participation via the discrete emotions of hope, fear, and anger and compares these effects across ideological groups. Relative to a message that discusses only negative climate impacts, messages that emphasize the internal, external, or response efficacy of political actions to address climate c…
The Impact of Climate Change–Related Imagery and Text on Public Opinion and Behavior Change
This experimental study investigates how imagery and text in news coverage of climate change affect perceptions of issue importance, efficacy, and intentions to conserve energy and engage in climate change-related political behavior. The results reveal that images of solar panels and texts that discuss actions to address climate change increase individuals’ perceptions of efficacy. Perceived efficacy and issue importance each have a positive asso…
Extending the Impacts of Hostile Media Perceptions: Influences on Discussion and Opinion Polarization in the Context of Climate Change
Researchers recently have begun to examine how hostile media perceptions may promote discursive activities aimed at correcting the media’s perceived negative influence. We use nationally representative survey data to test a moderated-mediation model that finds that hostile media perceptions significantly affect support for climate mitigation policies through the mediator of discussion and that the link between discussion and policy support is mod…
Environmental Values and the Social Amplification of Risk: An Examination of How Environmental Values and Media Use Influence Predispositions for Public Engagement in Wildlife Management Decision Maki…
As human interaction with wildlife increases due to population growth and development, wildlife managers and risk professionals have increasingly recognized the importance of citizen participation in risk management decision making. Employing a general population telephone survey of upstate New York residents and using a structural equation model analysis, this study examines the roles that environmental values and media use play in promoting pub…
What drives support for self-driving car technology in the United States
Recent advances in automotive technology have made fully automated self-driving cars technologically feasible. Despite offering many benefits such as increased safety, improved fuel efficiency, and greater disability access, public support for self-driving cars remains low. While previous studies find that demographic factors such as age and sex influence self-driving car support, limited research has examined variables that are well known to pre…
Moral hazard or not? The effects of learning about carbon dioxide removal on perceptions of climate mitigation in the United States
The Benefit of Focusing on Air Pollution Instead of Climate Change: How Discussing Power Plant Emissions in the Context of Air Pollution, Rather than Climate Change, Influences Perceived Benefits, Cos…
This experiment examines how framing power plant emissions in terms of air pollution or climate change, and in terms of health or environmental impacts, influences perceived benefits and costs of policies to reduce emissions and intentions to take political action that supports such policies. A moderated-mediation model reveals that focusing on air pollution, instead of climate change, has a positive significant indirect influence on intended pol…
Climate Change Advocacy and Engagement on Social Media
This study examines how 21 leading environmental organizations framed climate change on Facebook and how these frames were associated with public engagement through reactions (e.g., likes), shares, and comments on the posts. We find that environmental nongovernmental organizations’ (NGOs) posts about climate change tend to emphasize the environmental impacts of climate change, political actions that are being taken by individuals and groups to ad…
Can’t You All Just Get Along? Effects of Scientific Disagreement and Incivility on Attention to and Trust in Science
Disagreement and incivility are increasingly common in science communication. While previous work has explored effects on issue attitudes, it has not examined how disagreement and incivility in news coverage influence attention to and trust in science. In this study, we investigate how civil and uncivil disagreement about non-politicized issues affects attention to science news, evaluations of research, and scientific trust. Results reveal that d…
Application of Risk Concepts to Wildlife Management: Special Issue Introduction
The degree to which professionals can improve wildlife management processes and outcomes depends in part on their ability to integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines, including those that detail how people interpret and respond to wildlife-related risks. Better integration of risk considerations into wildlife management can advance managers' understanding of stakeholders and the knowledge base used for decision-making. This article introduce…
Factors that Influence Concern About Human–Black Bear Interactions in Residential Settings
Problematic human–black bear interactions have increased in North America. Research is needed to clarify influences on human concern about and reaction to bear behavior, such that wildlife managers can better understand and maintain stakeholder acceptance capacity for bears. This article uses mail survey data (n = 1,038, response rate = 42%) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test a conceptual model of factors affecting concern about bears…
Boomerang Effects in Science Communication: How Motivated Reasoning and Identity Cues Amplify Opinion Polarization About Climate Mitigation Policies
The deficit-model of science communication assumes increased communication about science issues will move public opinion toward the scientific consensus. However, in the case of climate change, public polarization about the issue has increased in recent years, not diminished. In this study, we draw from theories of motivated reasoning, social identity, and persuasion to examine how science-based messages may increase public polarization on contro…
Environmental Values and the Social Amplification of Risk: An Examination of How Environmental Values and Media Use Influence Predispositions for Public Engagement in Wildlife Management Decision Maki…
As human interaction with wildlife increases due to population growth and development, wildlife managers and risk professionals have increasingly recognized the importance of citizen participation in risk management decision making. Employing a general population telephone survey of upstate New York residents and using a structural equation model analysis, this study examines the roles that environmental values and media use play in promoting pub…
The role of numeracy in moderating the influence of statistics in climate change messages
In recent years, researchers have examined how numerical ability may moderate an individual’s response to different types of numeric information, but there is scant research examining how numerical ability may moderate responses to non-numeric vs. numeric information. The present study uses an experiment (complete data for 120 participants) to examine a moderated-mediation model that tests how numeracy may moderate the impact of numeric and non-n…
Attitude Change in Competitive Framing Environments? Open-/Closed-Mindedness, Framing Effects, and Climate Change: Framing and Open-Mindedness
Framing scholarship on policy issues has primarily focused on how competitive message environments alter framing effects or how individual differences moderate the impact of frames. This study combines both of these focal areas by examining how individual open-/closed-mindedness moderates framing effects about climate change within competitive and noncompetitive framing contexts. Contrary to previous scholarship, our experimental study finds effe…
Threat Without Efficacy? Climate Change on U.S. Network News
This study investigates how U.S. network television news stories have conveyed threat and efficacy information about climate change, both directly and indirectly, through the discussion and framing of climate change impacts and actions. Results show that while impacts and actions are discussed independently in a majority of broadcasts, they are rarely discussed in the same broadcast. Moreover, while news coverage frequently conveys the threat of …
Public opinion on energy development: The interplay of issue framing, top-of-mind associations, and political ideology
Polarized frames on “climate change” and “global warming” across countries and states: Evidence from Twitter big data
Extending the Impacts of Hostile Media Perceptions: Influences on Discussion and Opinion Polarization in the Context of Climate Change
Researchers recently have begun to examine how hostile media perceptions may promote discursive activities aimed at correcting the media’s perceived negative influence. We use nationally representative survey data to test a moderated-mediation model that finds that hostile media perceptions significantly affect support for climate mitigation policies through the mediator of discussion and that the link between discussion and policy support is mod…
How geographic distance and political ideology interact to influence public perception of unconventional oil/natural gas development
The Impact of Climate Change–Related Imagery and Text on Public Opinion and Behavior Change
This experimental study investigates how imagery and text in news coverage of climate change affect perceptions of issue importance, efficacy, and intentions to conserve energy and engage in climate change-related political behavior. The results reveal that images of solar panels and texts that discuss actions to address climate change increase individuals’ perceptions of efficacy. Perceived efficacy and issue importance each have a positive asso…
Using Political Efficacy Messages to Increase Climate Activism: The Mediating Role of Emotions
Using an online experiment with a national sample, this study tests the effects of political efficacy messages on two types of climate-related political participation via the discrete emotions of hope, fear, and anger and compares these effects across ideological groups. Relative to a message that discusses only negative climate impacts, messages that emphasize the internal, external, or response efficacy of political actions to address climate c…
Polarizing news? Representations of threat and efficacy in leading US newspapers’ coverage of climate change
This study examines non-editorial news coverage in leading US newspapers as a source of ideological differences on climate change. A quantitative content analysis compared how the threat of climate change and efficacy for actions to address it were represented in climate change coverage across The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today between 2006 and 2011. Results show that The Wall Street Journal was least …
Is There Any Hope? How Climate Change News Imagery and Text Influence Audience Emotions and Support for Climate Mitigation Policies
Using a national sample, this study experimentally tests the effects of news visuals and texts that emphasize either the causes and impacts of climate change or actions that can be taken to address climate change. We test the effects of variations in text and imagery on discrete emotions (i.e., hope, fear, and anger) and, indirectly, on support for climate mitigation policies. Political ideology is examined as a moderator. The findings indicate t…
Broadening Exposure to Climate Change News? How Framing and Political Orientation Interact to Influence Selective Exposure
Two online news browsing experiments were conducted with national samples of U.S. adults to test the effects of six different climate change frames on selective exposure to climate change news; the frames emphasized the implications of climate change for either public health, the economy, national security, the environment, morality, or political conflict. Effects were compared between liberal-Democrats, moderate-Independents, and conservative-Re…
In consensus we trust? Persuasive effects of scientific consensus communication
Scholars have recently suggested that communicating levels of scientific consensus (e.g. the percentage of scientists who agree about human-caused climate change) can shift public opinion toward the dominant scientific opinion. Initial research suggested that consensus communication effectively reduces public skepticism. However, other research failed to find a persuasive effect for those with conflicting prior beliefs. This study enters this con…
What drives support for self-driving car technology in the United States
Recent advances in automotive technology have made fully automated self-driving cars technologically feasible. Despite offering many benefits such as increased safety, improved fuel efficiency, and greater disability access, public support for self-driving cars remains low. While previous studies find that demographic factors such as age and sex influence self-driving car support, limited research has examined variables that are well known to pre…
Climate change as a polarizing cue: Framing effects on public support for low-carbon energy policies
Politicization and Polarization in Covid-19 News Coverage
This study examines the level of politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news in U.S. newspapers and televised network news from March to May 2020. Using multiple computer-assisted content analytic approaches, we find that newspaper coverage is highly politicized, network news coverage somewhat less so, and both newspaper and network news coverage are highly polarized. We find that politicians appear in newspaper coverage more frequently than…
Politicization and Polarization in Climate Change News Content, 1985-2017
Despite concerns about politicization and polarization in climate change news, previous work has not been able to offer evidence concerning long-term trends. Using computer-assisted content analyses of all climate change articles from major newspapers in the United States between 1985 and 2017, we find that media representations of climate change have become (a) increasingly politicized, whereby political actors are increasingly featured and scie…
Can’t You All Just Get Along? Effects of Scientific Disagreement and Incivility on Attention to and Trust in Science
Disagreement and incivility are increasingly common in science communication. While previous work has explored effects on issue attitudes, it has not examined how disagreement and incivility in news coverage influence attention to and trust in science. In this study, we investigate how civil and uncivil disagreement about non-politicized issues affects attention to science news, evaluations of research, and scientific trust. Results reveal that d…
The Benefit of Focusing on Air Pollution Instead of Climate Change: How Discussing Power Plant Emissions in the Context of Air Pollution, Rather than Climate Change, Influences Perceived Benefits, Cos…
This experiment examines how framing power plant emissions in terms of air pollution or climate change, and in terms of health or environmental impacts, influences perceived benefits and costs of policies to reduce emissions and intentions to take political action that supports such policies. A moderated-mediation model reveals that focusing on air pollution, instead of climate change, has a positive significant indirect influence on intended pol…
Moral hazard or not? The effects of learning about carbon dioxide removal on perceptions of climate mitigation in the United States
Climate Change Consensus Messages Cause Reactance
Several recent studies have debated whether climate change consensus messages cause reactance, although they sometimes employ different procedures and measurement. This study uses procedures and measures from competing studies to allow for a comparison of the respective approaches. We find that climate change consensus messages cause reactance, particularly among Republicans and those who do not believe in anthropogenic climate change. These find…
Political science (26 works) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (25 works) · Psychology (23 works) · Climate change (19 works) · Politics (18 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Public relations (11 works) · Ecology (10 works) · Environmental Education and Sustainability (10 works)