“It’s Global Warming, Stupid”: Aggressive Communication Styles and Political Ideology in Science Blog Debates About Climate Change

Author ORCID Identifier

Shupei Yuan:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1796-9611

Publication Title

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

ISSN

10776990

E-ISSN

43878

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The current study examined the effects of aggressive communication styles on individuals’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Two underlying mechanisms—psychological reactance and expectancy violation—as well as the moderating role played by political ideology were investigated. An online experiment (N = 423) was conducted and the results showed that more aggressive style was more likely to trigger psychological reactance and violation of expectation, liberals responded more negatively to the aggressive message than conservatives, and expectancy violation was an important mediator. The findings provide explanations for how communication styles affect individuals’ information processing and offer implications regarding selecting communication styles wisely.

First Page

1003

Last Page

1025

Publication Date

12-1-2020

DOI

10.1177/1077699020904791

Keywords

aggressive communication, expectancy violation, political ideology, psychological reactance

Department

Department of Communication

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