Climate change threatens wildlife by disrupting habitats, food sources, and ecosystems, highlighting the need for effective communication strategies that promote environmental actions. Storytelling, particularly through narrative messaging, can be an effective tool for fostering emotional engagement and motivating pro-environmental behaviors. This study explored how narrative messages about animals affected by climate change can elicit empathy and anticipated guilt and ultimately encourage behavioral intentions to mitigate harm. Study 1 (N = 229) investigated the role of narrative features and psychological distance in eliciting empathy. Using a 3 × 2 experimental design, it examined first-person, third-person, and non-narrative formats while varying animals’ phylogenetic similarity to humans (similar vs. dissimilar). Narrative messages, regardless of perspective, significantly increased empathy compared to non-narrative messages. Empathy levels were consistent across animals similar (e.g., mammals) and dissimilar (e.g., insects) to humans, demonstrating the broad applicability of narrative storytelling in environmental advocacy. Building on these insights, Study 2 (N = 250) employed a 2 × 4 experimental design to assess how narrative formats influenced pro-environmental intentions via mediators of discrete emotions (sadness and anger), empathy, and anticipated guilt. Path analyses indicated that narrative messages elicited greater anger and sadness but not empathy. Empathy and sadness influenced anticipated guilt, which was associated with pro-environmental behavioral intentions. These findings highlight the complex role of narrative storytelling in environmental communication and contribute to theoretical development and practical applications by demonstrating how narratives can elicit emotional engagement, foster moral emotions, and promote pro-environmental behavioral intentions.
Yan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.