Comparing the atmosphere to a bathtub: effectiveness of analogy for reasoning about accumulation Sophie Guy & Yoshihisa Kashima & Iain Walker & Saffron O_Neill Received: 8 January 2013 / Accepted: 20 September 2013 / Published online: 17 October 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Understanding the process of accumulation is fundamental to recognising the magnitude and speed of emissions reduction required to stabilise atmospheric CO 2 and, hence, global temperature. This research investigated the effectiveness of analogy for building under- standing of accumulation among non-experts. Two studies tested the effects of analogy and graphical information on: (1) performance on a CO 2 stabilisation task; and (2) preferred level of action on climate change. Study 1 was conducted with a sample of undergraduate students and Study 2, with a sample of the Australian public. In the student sample, analogical processing significantly improved task performance when information about emission rates was presented in text but not when it was presented in graph format. It was also associated with greater preference for strong action on climate change. When tested with the public, analogy and information format independently influenced task performance. Furthermore, there was a marginal effect of education such that the analogy especially might have helped those with at least high school attainment. Our results show that analogy can improve non-experts’ under- standing of CO 2 accumulation but that using graphs to convey emissions rate information is detrimental to such improvements. The results should be of interest to climate change commu- nicators, advocates, and policy-makers. Climatic Change (2013) 121:579–594 DOI 10.1007/s10584-013-0949-3 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0949-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. S. Guy (*) : Y. Kashima Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Redmond Barry Building, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia e-mail: s.guy@student.unimelb.edu.au Y. Kashima e-mail: ykashima@unimelb.edu.au I. Walker Ecosystem Sciences CSIRO, Underwood Avenue, Floreat, WA 6014, Australia e-mail: Iain.A.Walker@csiro.au S. O_Neill Geography, Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK e-mail: S.O'Neill@exeter.ac.uk