Dual emotional mechanisms in green persuasion: neural and behavioral evidence from tourism contexts

This study investigates how negative environmental imagery shapes tourists’ responses to subsequent green initiative messages within a stage-based emotional processing framework. Study 1 uses electroencephalography to show that exposure to environmental degradation imagery heightens early-stage affective arousal and attentional engagement during subsequent message processing. Study 2 demonstrates that negative-to-positive message sequencing induces contrast-based shifts in emotional valence, enhancing pro-environmental behavioral intention. The findings indicate that sustainability communication functions as a sequential emotional process, in which early neural arousal facilitates message processing, while valence-based evaluative contrast governs intention formation, offering a refined account of green persuasion.