ABSTRACT

Literary works of fiction about climate change are becoming more common and more popular among critics and readers. While much research has indicated the persuasive effectiveness of narrative storytelling in general, empirical research has not yet tested the effects of reading climate fiction. This paper reports results from the first experimental study to test the immediate and delayed impacts of climate fiction on readers’ beliefs and attitudes about climate change. We found that reading climate fiction had small but significant positive effects on several important beliefs and attitudes about global warming – observed immediately after participants read the stories. However, these effects diminished to statistical nonsignificance after a one-month interval. In this paper, we review the relevant literature, present the design and results of this experiment, and discuss implications for future research and practice.

摘要

关于气候变化的文学虚构作品越来越普遍，也越来越受到评论家和读者的欢迎。虽然许多研究表明一般来说叙事故事具有说服力，但实证研究尚未测试阅读气候小说的效果。本文报告了第一项实验研究的结果，该研究旨在测试气候小说对读者对气候变化的信念和态度的直接和延迟影响。我们发现，阅读气候小说对全球变暖的几个重要信念和态度有微小但显着的积极影响——在参与者阅读故事后立即观察到。然而，这些影响在一个月的间隔后减少到统计上的不显着性。在本文中，我们回顾了相关文献，