(Un-)scientifically Spun: Narratives, Belief Updating, and Pro-Environmental Behavior
通过2346名美国居民的实验，研究关于二氧化碳排放的叙事内容和风格如何影响人们的信念更新和亲环境行为，发现负面叙事显著增加担忧，正面叙事显著减少担忧，且非科学风格比科学风格对信念影响更大。
Abstract In an experiment conducted with 2346 US residents, we examine the effect of content (positive/ negative/ inconclusive) and style (scientific/unscientific) of narratives about $$\textrm{CO}_2$$ emissions on belief updating and pro-environmental behavior. We use the Work for Environmental Protection Task (WEPT) by Lange and Dewitte (Behave Res Methods 54:133–145, 2022) as a proxy for pro-environmental behavior. Narratives are constructed using the natural language processing chatbot ChatGPT. We find that negative narratives significantly increase concern regarding $$\textrm{CO}_2$$ emissions, while positive narratives significantly decrease concern, with the latter effect being significantly larger in terms of absolute value. For inconclusive narratives, the effect on beliefs depends on prior beliefs: Subjects with low prior beliefs increase their concern, whereas subjects with high prior beliefs decrease their concern. Moreover, we find that the unscientific style has a stronger effect on belief updating than the scientific style. Neither content nor style affects pro-environmental behavior significantly.