Remembering and Communicating Climate Change Narratives – The Influence of World Views on Selective Recollection

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Standard

Remembering and Communicating Climate Change Narratives – The Influence of World Views on Selective Recollection. / Böhm, Gisela; Pfister, Hans-Rüdiger; Salway, Andrew et al.
In: Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 10, 1026, 07.05.2019.

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Harvard

APA

Vancouver

Bibtex

@article{e82a476ad08d45359f1fc772676a9d29,
title = "Remembering and Communicating Climate Change Narratives – The Influence of World Views on Selective Recollection",
abstract = "We examine how people remember stories about climate change and how they communicate these stories to others. Drawing on theories of reconstructive memory and cultural theory, we assume that recollection is systematically affected by an individual's world view as well as by the world view of the target audience. In an experimental study with a Norwegian representative sample (N = 266), participants read a story about three politicians, in which each protagonist was described as holding a specific world view and as trying to tackle climate change with a corresponding strategy (individualistic/free market oriented, hierarchical/technology-oriented, or egalitarian/sustainability-oriented). After 1 day and then after 1 week, participants were asked to retell the story as if to somebody who was characterized as being either an individualist, a hierarchist, or an egalitarian; in addition, a neutral recall control condition without a specified audience was included. Participants' own world view was assessed and they were classified as endorsing individualism, or hierarchism, or egalitarianism. We hypothesized that retellings would be selectively reconstructed according to the world view of the participant, as well as tuned to the audience's world view. We assessed the cognitive structure of the recollected story, and, using methods from computational text analysis, we computed similarities among retellings and the original narrative, and among retellings and world views. Results suggest that (i) retellings become less accurate over time, (ii) retelling to an audience with an explicit world view leads to more strongly filtered retellings than recalling without a specified audience, but the filter operates in a non-specific manner with respect to world views, (iii) the cognitive structure of the recollected story shows small but systematic differences concerning the link between story problem and solution as a function of the participant's and the audience's world view. No interaction was found between the world view of the participant and that of the audience. Results emphasize the role of world views in communicating climate change, and might help to better understand phenomena such as polarization and echo chamber effects.",
keywords = "Business psychology, computational text analysis, climate change, world views, narratives, story telling, constructive memory, audience effects, Klimawandel, Weltanschauungen, Erz{\"a}hlungen, Geschichtenerz{\"a}hlen, konstruktive Erinnerung, Publikumseffekte, rechnerische Textanalyse",
author = "Gisela B{\"o}hm and Hans-R{\"u}diger Pfister and Andrew Salway and Kjersti Fl{\o}ttum",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 B{\"o}hm, Pfister, Salway and Fl{\o}ttum.",
year = "2019",
month = may,
day = "7",
doi = "10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01026",
language = "English",
volume = "10",
journal = "Frontiers in Psychology",
issn = "1664-1078",
publisher = "Frontiers Media SA",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Remembering and Communicating Climate Change Narratives – The Influence of World Views on Selective Recollection

AU - Böhm, Gisela

AU - Pfister, Hans-Rüdiger

AU - Salway, Andrew

AU - Fløttum, Kjersti

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Böhm, Pfister, Salway and Fløttum.

PY - 2019/5/7

Y1 - 2019/5/7

N2 - We examine how people remember stories about climate change and how they communicate these stories to others. Drawing on theories of reconstructive memory and cultural theory, we assume that recollection is systematically affected by an individual's world view as well as by the world view of the target audience. In an experimental study with a Norwegian representative sample (N = 266), participants read a story about three politicians, in which each protagonist was described as holding a specific world view and as trying to tackle climate change with a corresponding strategy (individualistic/free market oriented, hierarchical/technology-oriented, or egalitarian/sustainability-oriented). After 1 day and then after 1 week, participants were asked to retell the story as if to somebody who was characterized as being either an individualist, a hierarchist, or an egalitarian; in addition, a neutral recall control condition without a specified audience was included. Participants' own world view was assessed and they were classified as endorsing individualism, or hierarchism, or egalitarianism. We hypothesized that retellings would be selectively reconstructed according to the world view of the participant, as well as tuned to the audience's world view. We assessed the cognitive structure of the recollected story, and, using methods from computational text analysis, we computed similarities among retellings and the original narrative, and among retellings and world views. Results suggest that (i) retellings become less accurate over time, (ii) retelling to an audience with an explicit world view leads to more strongly filtered retellings than recalling without a specified audience, but the filter operates in a non-specific manner with respect to world views, (iii) the cognitive structure of the recollected story shows small but systematic differences concerning the link between story problem and solution as a function of the participant's and the audience's world view. No interaction was found between the world view of the participant and that of the audience. Results emphasize the role of world views in communicating climate change, and might help to better understand phenomena such as polarization and echo chamber effects.

AB - We examine how people remember stories about climate change and how they communicate these stories to others. Drawing on theories of reconstructive memory and cultural theory, we assume that recollection is systematically affected by an individual's world view as well as by the world view of the target audience. In an experimental study with a Norwegian representative sample (N = 266), participants read a story about three politicians, in which each protagonist was described as holding a specific world view and as trying to tackle climate change with a corresponding strategy (individualistic/free market oriented, hierarchical/technology-oriented, or egalitarian/sustainability-oriented). After 1 day and then after 1 week, participants were asked to retell the story as if to somebody who was characterized as being either an individualist, a hierarchist, or an egalitarian; in addition, a neutral recall control condition without a specified audience was included. Participants' own world view was assessed and they were classified as endorsing individualism, or hierarchism, or egalitarianism. We hypothesized that retellings would be selectively reconstructed according to the world view of the participant, as well as tuned to the audience's world view. We assessed the cognitive structure of the recollected story, and, using methods from computational text analysis, we computed similarities among retellings and the original narrative, and among retellings and world views. Results suggest that (i) retellings become less accurate over time, (ii) retelling to an audience with an explicit world view leads to more strongly filtered retellings than recalling without a specified audience, but the filter operates in a non-specific manner with respect to world views, (iii) the cognitive structure of the recollected story shows small but systematic differences concerning the link between story problem and solution as a function of the participant's and the audience's world view. No interaction was found between the world view of the participant and that of the audience. Results emphasize the role of world views in communicating climate change, and might help to better understand phenomena such as polarization and echo chamber effects.

KW - Business psychology

KW - computational text analysis

KW - climate change

KW - world views

KW - narratives

KW - story telling

KW - constructive memory

KW - audience effects

KW - Klimawandel, Weltanschauungen, Erzählungen, Geschichtenerzählen, konstruktive Erinnerung, Publikumseffekte, rechnerische Textanalyse

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068422598&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/dcb6f565-2dd8-38e9-a936-534b60837130/

U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01026

DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01026

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 31133941

VL - 10

JO - Frontiers in Psychology

JF - Frontiers in Psychology

SN - 1664-1078

M1 - 1026

ER -

Documents

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Grain refinement of Mg-Al alloys by carbon inoculation
  2. Learning the hard way
  3. On the Problems of Honorary Work in German Sports Clubs – A Qualitative-Dominated Crossover Mixed Methods Study
  4. Development of recyclable Mg-based alloys
  5. Creep and hot working behavior of a new magnesium alloy Mg-3Sn-2Ca
  6. Meta-analytic cointegrating rank tests for dependent panels
  7. Measurement approaches for inigrated reporting adoption and quality
  8. Ablauforganisation in Arztpraxen
  9. Investigations on microstructure and properties of Mg-Sn-Ca alloys with 3% Al additions
  10. Evaluating a web-based PPGIS for the rehabilitation of urban riparian corridors
  11. Multiscale performance of landscape metrics as indicators of species richness of plants, insects and vertebrates
  12. Mechanical behaviors of extruded Mg alloys with high Gd and Nd content
  13. Policy schemes, operational strategies and system integration of residential co-generation fuel cells.
  14. Is there an excess of significant findings in published studies of psychotherapy for depression?
  15. Organic farming affects the biological control of hemipteran pests and yields in spring barley independent of landscape complexity
  16. Assessing Trust by Disclosure in Online Social Networks
  17. Product diversification and stability of employment and sales
  18. Dynamische Modellierung der Sorption von Substanzen in einem hydrologischen Einzugsgebietsmodell anhand des Beispiels Phosphor
  19. Macroeconomic shocks and banks’ foreign assets
  20. Improving compliance with COVID-19 guidance
  21. Predicting expatriate job performance
  22. Alcohol intake can reduce gambling behavior
  23. Statistical Learning and Inference Is Impaired in the Nonclinical Continuum of Psychosis
  24. Schulbezogenes mathematisches Vorwissen von Bewerber*innen auf ein Mathematik-Lehramtsstudium
  25. Plastics in our ocean as transdisciplinary challenge
  26. Investigation On The Influence Of Remanufacturing On Production Planning And Control – A Systematic Literature Review
  27. Stock price reactions to climate science information from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  28. Effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations on barley, sugar beet and wheat in a rotation
  29. Toward “hardened” accountability?
  30. New evidence for vegetation development and timing of Upper Middle Pleistocene interglacials in Northern Germany and tentative correlations
  31. Intermetallic phase characteristics in the Mg–Nd–Zn system
  32. Does Internet-based guided self-help for depression cause harm?
  33. Print exposure across the reading life span
  34. Reaching for the (Product) Stars
  35. Influence of cerium on stress corrosion cracking in AZ91D
  36. Elution of Monomers from Two Conventional Dental Composite Materials
  37. Effects of introspective vs. extraspective instruction in scaling of hedonic properties of flavouring ingredients by Chinese and German subjects
  38. Simulation of the quench sensitivity of the aluminum alloy 6082
  39. Generalising IRT to Discriminate Between Examinees
  40. Systematic study of the effect of non-uniform seal stiffness on the contact stress in flat-faced soft-seated spring operated pressure relief valves
  41. Accurate welding line prediction in extrusion processes
  42. Photochemistry of 2,2', 4,4', %,5'-hexabde (BDE-153) in THF and adsorbed on SiO2
  43. Cues from Facial Expressions for Emotional Interfaces
  44. Manufacture of profiles with variable cross-sections, curvatures and twistings by influencing the material flow in hot extrusion
  45. Effects of habitat heterogeneity on bird communities in forests of northeastern Germany
  46. The multipole resonance probe