Why aren’t we Saving the Planet: A Psycholotist’s Perspective (34 page)

Participants’ ratings of happiness dropped significantly from their baseline happiness levels measured at the start

Table 14.2
Mean responses on the mood questionnaire

 

Figure 14.1
Mean responses on the mood questionnaire.

of the experiment (mean = 3.01) to their ratings after watching each of the seven clips.

Aside from the pre-viewing condition when levels of happiness were at their highest (mean = 3.01), the
Natural Resources
clip (mean = 2.64) and the
Small Planet
clip (mean = 2.62) left participants with the highest levels of happiness of all the clips, which seemed appropriate as these clips were viewed by the experimenters as ‘optimistic clips’. Surprisingly, the China clip came third in the happiness ratings (mean = 2.56). For the remaining clips, however, there seems to be a significant drop in levels of happiness after viewing.

When compared to the
Natural Resources
clip (mean = 2.64), participants were significantly less happy after watching the
Population Growth
clip, mean = 1.94, and after watching the
Rising Sea Levels
clip, mean = 1.13. When compared to the
Small Planet
clip (mean = 2.62), participants were again significantly less happy after watching the
Population Growth
clip, mean = 1.94, and the
Rising Sea Levels
clip, mean = 1.13.

However, it was the
Rising Sea Levels
clip (mean = 1.13) that appeared to have the most significant impact on participants’ levels of happiness as, compared to the pre-condition and every other clip, happiness levels were significantly reduced after watching this clip. The
Rising Sea Levels
clip made participants significantly less happy than any of the following clips.

Further analyses revealed that ratings of sadness were significantly higher after participants had watched the
Polar Bear clip
, mean = 1.69, and the
Rising Sea Levels
clip, mean = 1.89, compared to when they watched the more optimistic
Small Planet
clip (mean = 1.25). These were the only significant effects for sadness.

Here the analyses revealed that participants’ ratings of calmness significantly dropped from their initial level of calmness at the start of the experiment (mean = 2.47) after watching each of the seven clips.

Analyses here revealed that participants’ ratings of tiredness dropped significantly after watching the
Rising Sea Levels
clip (mean = 1.39) when compared to the previewing condition, mean = 1.78, and two of the other clips – the
Paradox
clip, mean = 1.76, and the
Polar Bear
clip, mean = 1.73. There were no other significant differences for this mood state.

The responses for each statement were grouped under the five category headings of message acceptance, motivation, empowerment, shifting responsibility and fatalism, and the mean responses were calculated as shown in
Table 14.3
. These responses are illustrated in
Figure 14.2
.

Statistical tests were conducted on the data to test whether there were significant changes to explicit attitudes/ social cognitions after watching each of the seven clips. Changes to attitudes were found for the categories of
motivation, empowerment, shifting responsibility
and
fatalism
but not for the category of
message acceptance
, as detailed below.

Participants’ levels of motivation significantly increased after watching each of the clips compared to the pre-viewing condition.

Table 14.3
Mean responses on the climate change attitudes questionnaire grouped by category

 

Figure 14.2
Mean ratings on the climate change attitudes questionnaire coded by category.

Motivation significantly
decreased
from the pre-viewing levels after watching the
Paradox
clip. After watching the
Polar Bear
clip, levels of motivation were significantly higher than after watching either the China clip or the
Natural Resources
clip. After watching the
Rising Sea Levels
clip, motivation was again significantly higher than after watching either the
China
clip or the
Natural Resources
clip.

After watching the
Population Growth
clip, motivation levels were significantly higher than after watching both the
China
clip and the
Natural Resources
clip. Levels of motivation were also significantly lower after watching the
Paradox
clip than after watching the
China
clip. Compared to the pre-viewing levels, empowerment significantly increased after watching each of the clips.

Levels of shifting responsibility increased significantly after watching the
China
clip compared to the
Rising Sea Levels
clip. None of the other comparisons reached statistical significance. Levels of fatalism were significantly lower after watching the clips compared to the pre-viewing levels of fatalism.

Levels of fatalism were also significantly lower after watching the
Small Planet
clip than they were after watching the
China
clip.

Thus, we found that selected extracts from the film
An Inconvenient Truth
do have a significant effect on the mood state as well as on the explicit social attitudes/social cognitions of the people who watch them. After watching each of the clips our participants were significantly less happy and significantly less calm than they were in the previewing baseline. Watching the clips did not significantly affect their anger or their level of tension or energy, but some of the clips did have an effect on sadness and tiredness. The mean response for happiness was lowest for clip 7 (1.13 on a five-point scale, with 1 being not at all happy and 5 being extremely happy). This is a clip about rising sea levels and the effects of global warming on the future landscape of the world. This clip also produced the highest rating on the sadness scale (a mean of 1.89). In other words, when the impact of global warming is illustrated with its impact on various regions around the world and a figure put to the number of people who would be killed or displaced by this tragedy, this has a more profound impact on the mood of those who watch the film than any of the other messages in any of the other clips. Indeed, happiness level is significantly lower after watching this clip than after watching any of the
other six other clips. Interestingly, the
Rising Sea Levels
clip also made people feel significantly less tired (a mean rating of 1.39 compared to a pre-viewing baseline of 1.78). It is as if this clip is jolting people awake, producing a tiredness rating quite different from all of the rest (with the closest response on this mood state being to the
Population Growth
clip, with a mean of 1.46). In other words, extracts from the Al Gore film have a significant impact on our mood but they are not all equal in their force. One clip in particular stands out in producing the most dramatic effects, and this is the clip about rising sea levels.