How narrative climate messages influence behavioral intentions and policy acceptance: the role of anxiety and fear

Climate change communication should move beyond the mere provision of scientific information and incorporate approaches, such as narrative, that can elicit emotional responses. This study examined whether presenting climate change information in a narrative rather than an expository format influences behavioral intention and policy acceptance through specific emotions, namely anxiety and fear. An online randomized experiment was conducted in Japan with 2,121 adults. Participants received comparable information about the impacts of climate change in either a narrative format featuring a future character or an expository format presenting the same content in a logical structure. Analyses were restricted to 908 respondents who passed an attention check. The narrative condition elicited significantly stronger emotion than the expository condition. Mediation analyses showed significant indirect effects of information format on both behavioral intention and policy acceptance through emotion, whereas the direct effects were no longer statistically significant after emotion was included in the models. These findings suggest that narrative climate messages may influence behavioral intention and policy acceptance primarily by increasing emotional engagement rather than through a direct persuasive effect. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of considering emotional engagement when designing climate change communication.