Moral Messages Increase Support for Renewable Energy

The study found that while messages describing the harms of fossil fuels and benefits of renewable energy are effective at increasing support for an energy transition, adding explicit moral claims—such as stating that fossil fuel use is 'unethical'—does not further enhance persuasiveness or the long-term durability of the effect.

• Explicitly emphasizing the moral and ethical aspects of energy sources did not increase the persuasiveness of messages compared to those that only described the negative impacts of fossil fuel use.
• Both moralized and non-moralized messages were effective at changing beliefs about renewable energy and increasing support for an energy transition.
• The persuasive effects of the messages were durable over a three-week period, with between 32% and 48% of the original treatment effect remaining, regardless of whether the message was moralized.

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2023). Moral Messages Increase Support for Renewable Energy. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/moral-messages-increase-support-for-renewable-energy/

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Moral Messages Increase Support for Renewable Energy. 2023. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/moral-messages-increase-support-for-renewable-energy/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=Moral Messages Increase Support for Renewable Energy |date=20 July 2023 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/moral-messages-increase-support-for-renewable-energy/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2023moral, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{Moral Messages Increase Support for Renewable Energy}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/moral-messages-increase-support-for-renewable-energy/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }