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A thread on our attempt to replicate Baldwin and Lammers’ (2016, Study 3) temporal framing effect, which has just been published in @PLOSONE https://tinyurl.com/yhjde488
Coauthors: @annaklas_ @EddieJRClarke @daftgaloot
Original authors: @mattwbaldwin @LammersJoris
Coauthors: @annaklas_ @EddieJRClarke @daftgaloot
Original authors: @mattwbaldwin @LammersJoris
In the original, conservatives reported higher pro-environmental attitudes after viewing images showing how the environment has changed (vs how the environment will change in future)
We aimed to test the mechanism of the effect: Do past comparisons work because the environmental changes are seen as more certain (than projected future changes)? Do they appeal to conservatives’ past time perspective? Inspire nostalgia? Reduce psychological distance?
We also wanted to test how far the temporal framing effect goes. Does it increase acceptance of climate change? Support for pro-climate policy? Activism? Or is it limited to pro-environmental attitudes?
Unfortunately, we couldn’t fully test these explanations for the temporal framing effect, as we did not reliably replicate the effect across our various DVs. The interactions that we did find were weak and inconsistent across our two studies.
With sample sizes two (Study 1) and five (Study 2) times the size of the original, our findings cast some doubt on whether these past comparisons boost conservatives’ environmentalism more than future comparisons.
We’re grateful to @mattwbaldwin for his thoughtful advice throughout the life of our project (and for alleviating my fear of creating an academic enemy by publishing the failed replication!) I hope to work with him on a related project soon.
What about other ways of inducing temporal comparisons? Our study (replicating Study 3) used image comparisons (comparing the present to the past vs future). Study 1 used a text-based method, which @KimInkuk and coauthors recently failed to replicate: https://bit.ly/3aZDGCH
The original authors provided convincing evidence for the temporal framing effect (including conceptual replications, even in the non-enviro sphere!). If framing studies are to inform climate change communications, it's important to know which are most effective (and when/why)
I’d like to launch an enviro psychology replication project to identify our most robust findings & most effective methods to promote environmentalism (incl. across the political spectrum). Advice on funding such a feat (as an ECR) welcome!
