Boosting Pro-Environmental Intentions Through Basic Psychological Need-Supportive Communication and Emotional Appeals: Insights from a Controlled Experiment

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-523-2_2How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Basic Psychological Needs; Environmental Communication; Emotional Appeals

Abstract

This study examined how positive versus negative emotional appeals and Self-Determination Theory-based communication strategies influence pro-environmental behavioural intentions. In a 2×2 between-subjects design, 194 UK residents viewed one of four print advertisements on plastic pollution: either Basic Psychological Need (BPN)–supportive or non-supportive, each paired with positive or negative imagery. Manipulation checks confirmed that autonomy-supportive language, clear action guides and social cues boosted need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness), while positive (resp. negative) appeals reliably evoked stronger positive (resp. negative) affect. Regression and PROCESS mediation analyses revealed that BPN-supportive advertisement drove intentions indirectly, despite a small negative direct effect from message complexity, by fulfilling basic psychological needs. Positive appeals further strengthened intentions via increased positive affect and enhanced need satisfaction, whereas negative appeals, though attention-grabbing, lacked comparable behavioural pathways. Emotional appeal alone did not directly predict intentions, highlighting the importance of SDT-driven empowerment over emotion-only tactics. These findings confirm SDT’s value in environmental messaging and suggest campaigns should combine clear, choice-driven frameworks with uplifting visuals, using negative imagery sparingly to avoid disengagement.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Minjian Guo
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Boosting Pro-Environmental Intentions Through Basic Psychological Need-Supportive Communication and Emotional Appeals: Insights from a Controlled Experiment
BT  - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on New Media Development and Modernised Education (NMDME 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 4
EP  - 15
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-523-2_2
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-523-2_2
ID  - Guo2025
ER  -