Not a Joke: An Experimental Exploration of the Impact of Humor on Pro-Environmental Behavior.

Abstract

Research on environmental communication has found that informational content related to environmental problems has little to no effect on pro-environmental behavior. It might even lead to unintended paralysis and inaction of the recipients due to the negative emotions evoked by the typically disturbing developments of environmental problems. A yet underexplored approach to environmental communication is the use of humor, an instrument that has shown promising results in changing behavior for example in health communication. In a lab experiment with 340 participants, we employ two different kinds of humor – good- natured and satirical – and test their effect on an actual environmental choice as well as reported dimensions of environmental attitudes, intentions, and perceived risk. We find that although both types of humor do not significantly increase attitudes, intentions, or perceived risk, good- natured humor has a positive and significant effect on pro-environmental behavior compared to purely informational content. We also find that satirical humor does not significantly affect these dimensions. These results contribute to the literature on environmental communication, showing the potential for utilizing good-natured humor in environmental campaigns and advertising. Our study also shows a methodology of assessing actual environmental behavior in a lab experiment.