The Effectiveness of Loss Framing and Fear Appeal in Motivating Climate Action

Current climate change communication involves various forms of framing: outcome framing, attribute framing, and point-of-reference framing. The focus of this paper will be on loss framing, a type of outcome framing. Past research on loss framing, including fear appeals, generally agrees that loss framing leads to suppression and denial of climate change information. This study aimed to determine whether fear appeal, a type of loss framing, effectively motivates people indirectly affected by climate change to take action. This review paper analyzed the results of 11 papers found on August 26, 2023, on ScienceDirect, with the keywords “climate change,” “fear appeal,” and “media” filtered for research articles. The results indicated that the papers reviewed generally found that either loss framing is effective on its own, loss framing is effective with specific solutions, that the effectiveness of loss framing may vary, or that motivational framing is more effective. This paper concluded that, generally, loss frames are more effective than motivational frames, but the effectiveness depends on the specific situation and group. There is a gap in the research concerning the effectiveness of loss framing climate change media, specifically on people indirectly experiencing climate change.