Lc Ray, Song Zijing, Sun Yating, Yang Cheng
School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 27;13:893181. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.893181. eCollection 2022.
Climate change is difficult to connect with personally, because people only regard the phenomenon as important if it becomes a perceived threat to themselves. Arguments like statistics and policy debates are extrinsic motivators, which do not necessarily align people's own intrinsic motives with those of climate action. Instead, narratives and visual communication can influence viewers implicitly by the way they show and reinforce actions and thoughts that align with climate action. In this design study, we used comics created for human-level climate change influence to promote ideas like future-based thinking, sharing of responsibility, and caring for each other. We also created data visuals that illustrate future consequences of climate change for the purpose of averting negative alternative realities. To see whether our design can affect audience perception of climate change on the human level of goals and desires, we showed the comics to readers unfamiliar with the themes of the stories, presenting them as manga about characters and situations. The survey showed that data stories can affect the way naive readers interpret narratives to align with pro-climate attitudes such as sharing and future-vision, and that readers are focused on the human-level of the data and story as opposed to the physical resource level. Speculative fiction and data visuals provide a potentially effective way to influence individuals' climate change attitudes by showing alternative realities and attributes of collective responsibility and planning-for-the-future as data stories.
气候变化很难与个人直接联系起来，因为人们只有在它成为对自身的一种明显威胁时，才会认为这一现象很重要。诸如统计数据和政策辩论之类的论据属于外在激励因素，不一定能使人们自身的内在动机与气候行动的动机保持一致。相反，叙事和视觉传达可以通过展示和强化与气候行动相符的行动和思想的方式，潜移默化地影响观众。在这项设计研究中，我们利用为人类层面的气候变化影响而创作的漫画，来推广诸如基于未来的思考、责任分担以及相互关爱等理念。我们还创作了数据可视化内容，以说明气候变化的未来后果，从而避免负面的替代现实。为了探究我们的设计是否能在人类目标和欲望层面影响受众对气候变化的认知，我们将这些漫画展示给不熟悉故事主题的读者，并将其呈现为关于人物和情境的漫画。调查显示，数据故事能够影响普通读者解读叙事的方式，使其与诸如分享和未来愿景等支持气候行动的态度保持一致，而且读者关注的是数据和故事的人类层面，而非物质资源层面。推测性小说和数据可视化通过展示替代现实以及集体责任和为未来规划等属性，作为数据故事，为影响个人对气候变化的态度提供了一种潜在有效的方式。
