BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Science and Environmental Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1579912
The world needs less plastic: The role of psychological distance and self-efficacy in environmental messages
Provisionally accepted
- 1Kent State University, Kent, United States
- 2University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study examines the role of lowering psychological distance and increasing self-efficacy around plastic pollution through environmental media messages. Participants (N = 215) were randomly assigned to watch a short video (30-60 seconds) that was either generalized or localized to the state of the participant's residency and that did or did not include a self-efficacy message in this 2 x 2 between-subjects experiment. Results indicate that message localization lowers psychological distance and including self-efficacy messages increase self-efficacy. Both led to increased message-consistent attitudes and thus increased behavioral intentions to reduce plastic waste and promote the same behaviors in others.
Keywords: Plastic pollution, Psychological Distance (PD), localized messaging, self-efficacy, Theory of Planned Behavior (TBP)
Received: 19 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cooper, Brinkerhoff and Landreville. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kathryn E. Cooper, Kent State University, Kent, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.