Many theories suggest envisioning a desirable future motivates individual and collective action, but it is unclear how media can best be used to foster visions of positive environmental futures. Furthermore, media about climate change often depict negative futures with dire consequences. Although portrayals of sustainable futures in which humanity has succeeded in climate adaptation and mitigation may give some audiences a goal to work towards, this same content risks evoking resistance if other audiences find these optimistic scenarios unfamiliar or unappealing. Narratives are one promising avenue for reducing such resistance. Using an online experiment (N = 1,185 U.S. participants) following a 2 (message format: narrative vs. non-narrative) × 2 (message frame: positive future vs. negative future) + control design, we examine how climate future messages impact activism and advocacy intentions via transportation, constructive hope, imagination, and counterarguing. Results indicate that positive future messaging invited more counterarguing than negative future messaging, but using a narrative structure neutralized this difference. Exploratory analyses indicated a subsequent positive indirect effect on advocacy intentions. Findings offer theoretical implications for work on climate visions, cognitive alternatives, and future thinking, as well as practical implications for climate communicators, educators, and activists.
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