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Climate change images produce an attentional bias associated with pro-environmental disposition

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Abstract

Humans have developed mechanisms to prioritize certain sensory input(s). Emotionally salient stimuli automatically capture observers’ attention at the cost of less salient information. This prioritized processing is called attentional bias. Images of climate change have been found to elicit emotional responses. Yet, to date, there is no research assessing the extent to which climate change-relevant images produce an attentional bias. In a sample of college students (N = 39), we found that (1) climate change-related images capture attention and that (2) this attentional bias is related to individual differences in environmental disposition. Thus, images of climate change are salient—attention grabbing—signals related to pro-environmental orientation.

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Fig. 1
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Data availability statement

Data from this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Notes

  1. Note that the effect of block (or time) did not interact with the attentional bias effect, F (2, 74) = 1.15, p = .32, η 2 p  = .03. Thus, similar to previous findings, attentional bias does not appear to habituate across time (Weber et al. 2016).

  2. Mean accuracy and reaction time in the dot-probe task were positively correlated (r = .40, p = .01), and mean accuracy correlated with attention bias scores (r = .35, p = .03). Previous research has shown that mean reaction time correlates with other dispositional factors such as anxiety (Mogg et al. 2008; Zvielli et al. 2015; Aday and Carlson 2018). Therefore, these factors were included as control variables in the regression model.

  3. In an alternative regression model, we residualized age, mean RT, and accuracy on NEP scores and then used sex and attentional bias as predictors of these residualized NEP scores. This model resulted in similar effects including overall model fit (F (2, 30) = 11.27, p = .0002, R2 = .43) as well as sex (β = .51, t = 3.68, p .001) and attention bias (β = .47, t = 3.39, p .002) as significant predictors.

  4. Given that our climate change-relevant images (on average) were rated higher in negative valance and arousal, future research should assess the extent to which other negative valence high arousal images capture attention in individuals with a pro-environmental disposition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI, 49855, USA

    Joshua M. Carlson & Betsy R. Lehman

  2. Department of Communication and Performance Studies, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA

    Jessica L. Thompson

Authors
  1. Joshua M. Carlson
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  2. Betsy R. Lehman
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  3. Jessica L. Thompson
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Contributions

JMC and JLT designed the study. BRL collected the data. JMC analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. BRL and JLT provided critical input and feedback on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Joshua M. Carlson.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Handling editor:Valerio Santangelo (University of Perugia); Reviewers: Moreno I. Coco (University of Lisbon), David Sewell (University of Queensland).

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Carlson, J.M., Lehman, B.R. & Thompson, J.L. Climate change images produce an attentional bias associated with pro-environmental disposition. Cogn Process 20, 385–390 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-019-00902-5

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