Abstract The impact of anthropogenic climate change is an ever-pressing challenge facing the global community. Making changes to minimize the negative effects of climate change is critical. Visual images of climate change are emotionally salient and have been found to capture attention. However, the degree to which emotional valence (i.e., positive or negative) and aspect of climate change (i.e., potential cause, effect, or solution) influence attentional capture by climate change relevant images is unknown. Across three experiments, we addressed this knowledge gap by measuring attention to these types of images with a dot-probe task. We found a consistent capture of attention by emotionally positive images of climate change solutions (e.g., windmills and solar panels), but not emotionally negative images of causes (e.g., industrial pollution) and effects (e.g., natural disasters and melting polar ice caps) of climate change. Negative images of climate change were found to produce a general slowing of reaction time, which may reflect a “freezing” response. Individual differences in attentional capture by climate change images were related to environmental disposition. Our results suggest that positive images of climate change solutions are attention grabbing and in turn may be the most suitable images to motivate environmentally friendly action or behavior.

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关注气候变化：气候变化解决方案的正面形象引起关注

摘要 人为气候变化的影响是全球社会面临的紧迫挑战。做出改变以尽量减少气候变化的负面影响至关重要。气候变化的视觉图像在情感上是显着的，并且已经被发现能够吸引注意力。然而，情绪效价（即积极或消极）和气候变化方面（即潜在原因、影响或解决方案）对气候变化相关图像的注意力捕获的影响程度尚不清楚。在三个实验中，我们通过使用点探针任务测量对这些类型图像的注意力来解决这一知识差距。我们发现气候变化解决方案（例如，风车和太阳能电池板）的情绪积极图像能持续吸引注意力，但原因的情绪消极图像（例如，工业污染）和气候变化的影响（例如，自然灾害和极地冰盖融化）。发现气候变化的负面图像会导致反应时间普遍减慢，这可能反映了“冻结”反应。气候变化图像注意力捕获的个体差异与环境处置有关。我们的结果表明，气候变化解决方案的正面形象会吸引注意力，反过来可能是最适合激发环保行动或行为的形象。气候变化图像注意力捕获的个体差异与环境处置有关。我们的结果表明，气候变化解决方案的正面形象会吸引注意力，反过来可能是最适合激发环保行动或行为的形象。气候变化图像注意力捕获的个体差异与环境处置有关。我们的结果表明，气候变化解决方案的正面形象会吸引注意力，反过来可能是最适合激发环保行动或行为的形象。