Bergmann, Franka (2025) Weathering Change - Media Coverage of Extreme Weather Events as a Window of Opportunity for Passing Effective Climate Policy. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Broadly accepted climate policy is needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This study investigates how media coverage of extreme weather events influences public acceptance of climate policies, with a focus on the mediating role of climate change risk perception and the moderating role of policy type (adaptation vs. mitigation). In an online experiment, 278 participants (ages 18 - 77, 55.8% men, 41.4% women, 2.9% non-binary) read news articles that either made a heatwave salient and attributed the event to climate change or not. They were then presented with either an adaptation or mitigation policy package. All materials were designed to be comparable across conditions. Participants self-reported policy acceptance, risk perception, and confidence in attributing extreme weather events to climate change. Media coverage did not have a significant effect on risk perception, but the mediation path of climate change risk perception significantly predicted policy acceptance. However, the interaction between risk perception and policy type did not have a significant effect either. Even though the manipulation did not work, exploratory analyses showed that attribution of the event to climate change still led to the expected effect, i.e. predicted risk perception, which in turn predicted policy acceptance. Findings suggest that when climate change risk perception is high, following extreme weather events, there may be a window of opportunity to pass accepted climate policy, especially when those events are clearly attributed to climate change.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Mlakar, Z. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Jul 2025 08:09 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jul 2025 08:09 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5674 |
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