Abel Gustafson
Biographic Data
| ID | 769657 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Abel Gustafson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Abel |
| FAMILY NAME | Gustafson |
| SIGNATURE | GUSTAFSON A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cincinnati |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6902-6132 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 110 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Yale program on climate change communication
On climate change, progress is not hindered by a lack of scientific knowledge or available solutions. Instead, our challenge is that of insufficient public and political will. As such, the front li
Testing the Durability of Persuasion From Moral Appeals About Renewable Energy
Research shows that opinions rooted in moral justifications may be more stable over time. This suggests that communicators could create more durable persuasion by adding explicit moral claims (i.e., stating that the issue is a matter of right vs. wrong) to persuasive messages. Here, using animated videos about the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we conducted a three-stage longitudinal experiment ( N = 4,488) to test whether mess…
Environmental Literature as Persuasion: An Experimental Test of the Effects of Reading Climate Fiction
Literary works of fiction about climate change are becoming more common and more popular among critics and readers. While much research has indicated the persuasive effectiveness of narrative storytelling in general, empirical research has not yet tested the effects of reading climate fiction. This paper reports results from the first experimental study to test the immediate and delayed impacts of climate fiction on readers’ beliefs and attitudes…
Information about the human causes of global warming influences causal attribution, concern, and policy support related to global warming
Scientists know that human activities, primarily fossil fuel combustion, are causing Earth’s temperature to increase. Yet in 2021, only 60% of the US population understood that human activities are the primary cause of global warming. We experimentally test whether information about the human causes of global warming influences Americans’ beliefs and concerns about global warming and support for climate policies. We find that communicating inform…
Communicating the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change: Diverse Audiences and Effects Over Time
Prior research has demonstrated that communicating the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is happening is an effective way to increase public understanding and engagement with the issue. However, less is known about (1) how persuasive this message is to oppositional audiences, (2) how long message effects last over time, and (3) what factors predict whether such effects last. We address these questions in a two-wave longitudina…
Relationships Among Environmental Attitudes, Environmental Efficacy, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors Across and Within 11 Countries
Pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) are crucial to reducing environmental degradations, and much research has focused on two key psychological antecedents: pro-environmental attitudes and efficacy beliefs. Yet, the evidence of their direct and interactive relationships are mixed. Further, few studies investigate how these key relationships vary across different countries and contexts. Using data from a large international survey ( N = 11,000) in 1…
Measuring Americans’ Support for Adapting to ‘Climate Change’ or ‘Extreme Weather’
Climate communicators can use the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘extreme weather’ to describe climate change adaptation strategies. However, the terms might differentially affect individuals’ support for those strategies. We examined Americans’ (N = 1,558) endorsement of climate change adaptation behaviors and policies based on whether they were described using ‘climate change’ or ‘extreme weather.’ Republicans’ endorsement of some adaptation behavio…
Does personal climate change mitigation behavior influence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States
A Framework for Understanding the Effects of Strategic Communication Campaigns
Decades of research on strategic communication campaigns has generated myriad insights. However, this valuable knowledge is often fragmented across many fields and topic areas, making it difficult for researchers and practitioners to distill this knowledge and map the key strategic considerations. In this article, we present an overarching framework for understanding the effects of strategic communication campaigns. We define the driving force as…
The Greta Thunberg Effect: Familiarity with Greta Thunberg predicts intentions to engage in climate activism in the United States
Despite Greta Thunberg's popularity, research has yet to investigate her impact on the public's willingness to take collective action on climate change. Using cross‐sectional data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults ( N = 1,303), we investigate the “Greta Thunberg Effect, ” or whether exposure to Greta Thunberg predicts collective efficacy and intentions to engage in collective action. We find that those who are more familiar w…
Shifting Republican views on climate change through targeted advertising
Mask-Wearing Increased After a Government Recommendation: A Natural Experiment in the U.S. During the Covid-19 Pandemic
On April 3 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all Americans wear face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The announcement came during the fielding of a large, nationally-representative survey (N = 3,933) of Americans’ COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, providing an opportunity to measure the impact of the CDC’s recommendation on public reported mask wearing and buying behavior…
A review of the effects of uncertainty in public science communication
Uncertainty is inherent to science and science communication. However, the evidence appears mixed regarding whether portraying uncertainty in science communication has positive or negative effects. We review a diverse range of experimental literature ( k = 48; from 40 searches and 8000 retrievals), summarize the extant findings, and observe how the effects vary across four different types of communicated uncertainty ( deficient, technical, scient…
Leveraging Social Science to Generate Lasting Engagement with Climate Change Solutions
Identifying the most important predictors of support for climate policy in the United States
Reducing global warming will require enacting strong climate policies, which is unlikely to happen without public support. While prior research has identified varied predictors of climate change policy support, it is unclear which predictors are strongest for the American electorate as a whole, and which predictors are strongest for Democrats and Republicans. In a nationally representative sample of registered voters ( n = 2063), we use relative …
A Social Identity Approach to Engaging Christians in the Issue of Climate Change
Using two nationally representative surveys (total N = 2,544) and two experiments (total N = 1,620), we investigate a social identity approach to engaging Christians in the issue of climate change. Results show Christian Americans say “protecting God’s creation” is a top reason for wanting to reduce global warming. An exploratory experiment and a preregistered replication tested a “stewardship frame” message with Christian Americans and found sig…
The Effects of Uncertainty Frames in Three Science Communication Topics
While uncertainty is central to science, many fear negative effects of communicating scientific uncertainties to the public, though research results about such effects are inconsistent. Therefore, we test the effects of four distinct uncertainty frame types (deficient, technical, scientific, consensus) on three outcomes (belief, credibility, behavioral intentions) across three science issues (climate change, GMO food labeling, machinery hazards) …
The Experience of Consensus: Video as an Effective Medium to Communicate Scientific Agreement on Climate Change
Research on the gateway belief model indicates that communicating the scientific consensus on global warming acts as a “gateway” to other beliefs and support for action. We test whether a video conveying the scientific consensus on global warming is more effective than a text transcript with the same information. Results show that the video was significantly more effective than the transcript in increasing people’s perception of scientific agreem…
Frequent but Accurate: A Closer Look at Uncertainty and Opinion Divergence in Climate Change Print News
The prevalence of uncertainty and opinion divergence frames in climate change news reporting has generated concerns about the misrepresentation of scientific consensus. We first develop reliable, valid, and more nuanced measures of often-conflated types of uncertainty and opinion divergence frames. Then we analyse the co-occurrence combinations of those distinct types of opinions, sources, and topics in mainstream climate change news stories betw…
Framing Climate Change: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Generating Advocacy Behavior
Substantial research examines the cognitive factors underlying proenviron-mental message effectiveness. In contrast, this study investigates the role of emotion, fear and hope specifically, in the gain/loss framing of environmental policy initiatives. The 2 (threat vs. no threat) × 2 (gain- vs. loss-framed efficacy) experiment revealed emotion, especially hope, as a key mediator between gain-framed messages and desired climate change policy attit…
Using Wikipedia to Predict Election Outcomes
This study seeks to improve election forecasting by supplementing polling data with online information-seeking behavior trends as an indicator of public opinion. Aggregate trends of demonstrations of interest or engagement have been shown to accurately predict behavior trends and reflect public opinion. Further, because traditional poll-based predictions are inherently undermined by self-reporting biases and the intention-behavior disconnect, we …
Cumulative Advantage in Sustainability Communication: Unintended Implications of the Knowledge Deficit Model
The knowledge deficit model proposes that more information increases public knowledge levels about a given topic and thus leads to improved attitudes and practice. However, research critiques the varying and limited ability of the deficit model. We argue that the deficit model can also produce an unintended cumulative advantage system: growing inequality between and within the knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) gap of individuals and groups due to…
Seeking interpersonal information over the Internet: An application of the theory of motivated information management to Internet use
Online information-seeking strategies are well understood in the context of health information acquisition but less is known about the information management of interpersonal information gathered over the Internet. One way to understand this nascent method for information seeking is to examine the motives that underlie one's intent to seek online information about others. The present study applies theory of motivated information management (TMIM)…
Framing Climate Change: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Generating Advocacy Behavior
Substantial research examines the cognitive factors underlying proenviron-mental message effectiveness. In contrast, this study investigates the role of emotion, fear and hope specifically, in the gain/loss framing of environmental policy initiatives. The 2 (threat vs. no threat) × 2 (gain- vs. loss-framed efficacy) experiment revealed emotion, especially hope, as a key mediator between gain-framed messages and desired climate change policy attit…
Identifying the most important predictors of support for climate policy in the United States
Reducing global warming will require enacting strong climate policies, which is unlikely to happen without public support. While prior research has identified varied predictors of climate change policy support, it is unclear which predictors are strongest for the American electorate as a whole, and which predictors are strongest for Democrats and Republicans. In a nationally representative sample of registered voters ( n = 2063), we use relative …
Seeking interpersonal information over the Internet: An application of the theory of motivated information management to Internet use
Online information-seeking strategies are well understood in the context of health information acquisition but less is known about the information management of interpersonal information gathered over the Internet. One way to understand this nascent method for information seeking is to examine the motives that underlie one's intent to seek online information about others. The present study applies theory of motivated information management (TMIM)…
The Effects of Uncertainty Frames in Three Science Communication Topics
While uncertainty is central to science, many fear negative effects of communicating scientific uncertainties to the public, though research results about such effects are inconsistent. Therefore, we test the effects of four distinct uncertainty frame types (deficient, technical, scientific, consensus) on three outcomes (belief, credibility, behavioral intentions) across three science issues (climate change, GMO food labeling, machinery hazards) …
A Social Identity Approach to Engaging Christians in the Issue of Climate Change
Using two nationally representative surveys (total N = 2,544) and two experiments (total N = 1,620), we investigate a social identity approach to engaging Christians in the issue of climate change. Results show Christian Americans say “protecting God’s creation” is a top reason for wanting to reduce global warming. An exploratory experiment and a preregistered replication tested a “stewardship frame” message with Christian Americans and found sig…
The Experience of Consensus: Video as an Effective Medium to Communicate Scientific Agreement on Climate Change
Research on the gateway belief model indicates that communicating the scientific consensus on global warming acts as a “gateway” to other beliefs and support for action. We test whether a video conveying the scientific consensus on global warming is more effective than a text transcript with the same information. Results show that the video was significantly more effective than the transcript in increasing people’s perception of scientific agreem…
Does personal climate change mitigation behavior influence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States
A Framework for Understanding the Effects of Strategic Communication Campaigns
Decades of research on strategic communication campaigns has generated myriad insights. However, this valuable knowledge is often fragmented across many fields and topic areas, making it difficult for researchers and practitioners to distill this knowledge and map the key strategic considerations. In this article, we present an overarching framework for understanding the effects of strategic communication campaigns. We define the driving force as…
Using Wikipedia to Predict Election Outcomes
This study seeks to improve election forecasting by supplementing polling data with online information-seeking behavior trends as an indicator of public opinion. Aggregate trends of demonstrations of interest or engagement have been shown to accurately predict behavior trends and reflect public opinion. Further, because traditional poll-based predictions are inherently undermined by self-reporting biases and the intention-behavior disconnect, we …
Cumulative Advantage in Sustainability Communication: Unintended Implications of the Knowledge Deficit Model
The knowledge deficit model proposes that more information increases public knowledge levels about a given topic and thus leads to improved attitudes and practice. However, research critiques the varying and limited ability of the deficit model. We argue that the deficit model can also produce an unintended cumulative advantage system: growing inequality between and within the knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) gap of individuals and groups due to…
Seeking interpersonal information over the Internet: An application of the theory of motivated information management to Internet use
Online information-seeking strategies are well understood in the context of health information acquisition but less is known about the information management of interpersonal information gathered over the Internet. One way to understand this nascent method for information seeking is to examine the motives that underlie one's intent to seek online information about others. The present study applies theory of motivated information management (TMIM)…
Cumulative Advantage in Sustainability Communication: Unintended Implications of the Knowledge Deficit Model
The knowledge deficit model proposes that more information increases public knowledge levels about a given topic and thus leads to improved attitudes and practice. However, research critiques the varying and limited ability of the deficit model. We argue that the deficit model can also produce an unintended cumulative advantage system: growing inequality between and within the knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) gap of individuals and groups due to…
Using Wikipedia to Predict Election Outcomes
This study seeks to improve election forecasting by supplementing polling data with online information-seeking behavior trends as an indicator of public opinion. Aggregate trends of demonstrations of interest or engagement have been shown to accurately predict behavior trends and reflect public opinion. Further, because traditional poll-based predictions are inherently undermined by self-reporting biases and the intention-behavior disconnect, we …
Frequent but Accurate: A Closer Look at Uncertainty and Opinion Divergence in Climate Change Print News
The prevalence of uncertainty and opinion divergence frames in climate change news reporting has generated concerns about the misrepresentation of scientific consensus. We first develop reliable, valid, and more nuanced measures of often-conflated types of uncertainty and opinion divergence frames. Then we analyse the co-occurrence combinations of those distinct types of opinions, sources, and topics in mainstream climate change news stories betw…
Framing Climate Change: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Generating Advocacy Behavior
Substantial research examines the cognitive factors underlying proenviron-mental message effectiveness. In contrast, this study investigates the role of emotion, fear and hope specifically, in the gain/loss framing of environmental policy initiatives. The 2 (threat vs. no threat) × 2 (gain- vs. loss-framed efficacy) experiment revealed emotion, especially hope, as a key mediator between gain-framed messages and desired climate change policy attit…
A Social Identity Approach to Engaging Christians in the Issue of Climate Change
Using two nationally representative surveys (total N = 2,544) and two experiments (total N = 1,620), we investigate a social identity approach to engaging Christians in the issue of climate change. Results show Christian Americans say “protecting God’s creation” is a top reason for wanting to reduce global warming. An exploratory experiment and a preregistered replication tested a “stewardship frame” message with Christian Americans and found sig…
The Effects of Uncertainty Frames in Three Science Communication Topics
While uncertainty is central to science, many fear negative effects of communicating scientific uncertainties to the public, though research results about such effects are inconsistent. Therefore, we test the effects of four distinct uncertainty frame types (deficient, technical, scientific, consensus) on three outcomes (belief, credibility, behavioral intentions) across three science issues (climate change, GMO food labeling, machinery hazards) …
The Experience of Consensus: Video as an Effective Medium to Communicate Scientific Agreement on Climate Change
Research on the gateway belief model indicates that communicating the scientific consensus on global warming acts as a “gateway” to other beliefs and support for action. We test whether a video conveying the scientific consensus on global warming is more effective than a text transcript with the same information. Results show that the video was significantly more effective than the transcript in increasing people’s perception of scientific agreem…
Mask-Wearing Increased After a Government Recommendation: A Natural Experiment in the U.S. During the Covid-19 Pandemic
On April 3 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all Americans wear face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The announcement came during the fielding of a large, nationally-representative survey (N = 3,933) of Americans’ COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, providing an opportunity to measure the impact of the CDC’s recommendation on public reported mask wearing and buying behavior…
A review of the effects of uncertainty in public science communication
Uncertainty is inherent to science and science communication. However, the evidence appears mixed regarding whether portraying uncertainty in science communication has positive or negative effects. We review a diverse range of experimental literature ( k = 48; from 40 searches and 8000 retrievals), summarize the extant findings, and observe how the effects vary across four different types of communicated uncertainty ( deficient, technical, scient…
Leveraging Social Science to Generate Lasting Engagement with Climate Change Solutions
Identifying the most important predictors of support for climate policy in the United States
Reducing global warming will require enacting strong climate policies, which is unlikely to happen without public support. While prior research has identified varied predictors of climate change policy support, it is unclear which predictors are strongest for the American electorate as a whole, and which predictors are strongest for Democrats and Republicans. In a nationally representative sample of registered voters ( n = 2063), we use relative …
The Greta Thunberg Effect: Familiarity with Greta Thunberg predicts intentions to engage in climate activism in the United States
Despite Greta Thunberg's popularity, research has yet to investigate her impact on the public's willingness to take collective action on climate change. Using cross‐sectional data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults ( N = 1,303), we investigate the “Greta Thunberg Effect, ” or whether exposure to Greta Thunberg predicts collective efficacy and intentions to engage in collective action. We find that those who are more familiar w…
Shifting Republican views on climate change through targeted advertising
Information about the human causes of global warming influences causal attribution, concern, and policy support related to global warming
Scientists know that human activities, primarily fossil fuel combustion, are causing Earth’s temperature to increase. Yet in 2021, only 60% of the US population understood that human activities are the primary cause of global warming. We experimentally test whether information about the human causes of global warming influences Americans’ beliefs and concerns about global warming and support for climate policies. We find that communicating inform…
Communicating the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change: Diverse Audiences and Effects Over Time
Prior research has demonstrated that communicating the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is happening is an effective way to increase public understanding and engagement with the issue. However, less is known about (1) how persuasive this message is to oppositional audiences, (2) how long message effects last over time, and (3) what factors predict whether such effects last. We address these questions in a two-wave longitudina…
Relationships Among Environmental Attitudes, Environmental Efficacy, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors Across and Within 11 Countries
Pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) are crucial to reducing environmental degradations, and much research has focused on two key psychological antecedents: pro-environmental attitudes and efficacy beliefs. Yet, the evidence of their direct and interactive relationships are mixed. Further, few studies investigate how these key relationships vary across different countries and contexts. Using data from a large international survey ( N = 11,000) in 1…
Measuring Americans’ Support for Adapting to ‘Climate Change’ or ‘Extreme Weather’
Climate communicators can use the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘extreme weather’ to describe climate change adaptation strategies. However, the terms might differentially affect individuals’ support for those strategies. We examined Americans’ (N = 1,558) endorsement of climate change adaptation behaviors and policies based on whether they were described using ‘climate change’ or ‘extreme weather.’ Republicans’ endorsement of some adaptation behavio…
Does personal climate change mitigation behavior influence collective behavior? Experimental evidence of no spillover in the United States
A Framework for Understanding the Effects of Strategic Communication Campaigns
Decades of research on strategic communication campaigns has generated myriad insights. However, this valuable knowledge is often fragmented across many fields and topic areas, making it difficult for researchers and practitioners to distill this knowledge and map the key strategic considerations. In this article, we present an overarching framework for understanding the effects of strategic communication campaigns. We define the driving force as…
Environmental Literature as Persuasion: An Experimental Test of the Effects of Reading Climate Fiction
Literary works of fiction about climate change are becoming more common and more popular among critics and readers. While much research has indicated the persuasive effectiveness of narrative storytelling in general, empirical research has not yet tested the effects of reading climate fiction. This paper reports results from the first experimental study to test the immediate and delayed impacts of climate fiction on readers’ beliefs and attitudes…
Yale program on climate change communication
On climate change, progress is not hindered by a lack of scientific knowledge or available solutions. Instead, our challenge is that of insufficient public and political will. As such, the front li
Testing the Durability of Persuasion From Moral Appeals About Renewable Energy
Research shows that opinions rooted in moral justifications may be more stable over time. This suggests that communicators could create more durable persuasion by adding explicit moral claims (i.e., stating that the issue is a matter of right vs. wrong) to persuasive messages. Here, using animated videos about the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we conducted a three-stage longitudinal experiment ( N = 4,488) to test whether mess…
Climate Change Communication and Perception (20 works) · Psychology (19 works) · Political science (17 works) · Environmental Education and Sustainability (16 works) · Climate change (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Global warming (7 works) · Ecology (6 works) · Media Influence and Health (6 works)