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Emily Hutchins Walpole's Graduate Exit Seminar

Jun 14, 2019, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Attachments: 

Emily will present her Graduate Exit Seminar, Communicating Climate Adaptation: A Mechanistic and Audience-Based Investigation of Message Framing Approaches for Climate-Exacerbated Hazards on Friday, June 14th at 12 noon in Kottman 370.

Overview:

There is consensus within the scientific community that impacts from climate change in the form of rising sea levels, more extreme weather events, and expanding disease risks are already occurring and are expected to worsen in the future. However, while large bodies of research have examined the effects of messaging strategies on climate mitigation behaviors, less research has examined communicating the need for climate-adaptive action, such as preparation for  climate-exacerbated natural hazards. In this talk I will highlight recent efforts to address this gap with a series of experiments examining the effects of different message frames (for example, attributing worsening hazards to climate change) on cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses among individuals, with additional focus on the underlying mechanisms and audience-based interactions underlying these effects. This work hopes to contribute understanding to the unique dynamics present within climate adaptation perception and messaging, and ultimately inform more effective communication techniques in the future.