Communicating climate science: The role of perceived communicator’s motives Anna Rabinovich * , Thomas A. Morton, Megan E. Birney University of Exeter, School of Psychology, Perry Road, Exeter EX4 4QG, UK article info Article history: Available online 1 October 2011 Keywords: Environmental behaviour Science communication Trust abstract In two experimental studies, we investigated the effects of public perceptions of climate scientists’ communicative motives on trust in scientists and willingness to engage with climate science messages. Study 1 demonstrated that members of the public who were led to believe that scientists aim to inform about the consequences of climate change (rather than to persuade to take a particular course of action) reported higher trust in scientists and stronger willingness to engage in environmental behaviour. Study 2 revealed that this effect was moderated by the style of the scientific message that participants were exposed to. Participants who expected scientists to engage in persuasion were more receptive to persuasive rather than informative messages, while the opposite was true for participants who believed that scientists’ purpose was purely to inform. In both studies the effects of perceived motives on will- ingness to act in line with the climate change messages were mediated through trust in scientists. The data demonstrate that managing public expectations about the purposes of science communication and delivering messages that are consistent with these expectations are a key to successful communication of climate science. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Misunderstandings between the scientific world and the wider public are a recognisable phenomenon within contemporary society. With the increasing speed of technological and social change, the increasing visibility of scientists as communicators of their work, and a growing audience for scientific information, examples of misunderstanding are also becoming more numerous (including DNA research, genetically modified food, and notably, climate change). Because scientific messages are becoming ever more complex, fostering effective communication between the scientific world and the general public is more challenging, but also more important than ever before. In this setting, social psycho- logical theory and research may offer useful insights about the means and mechanisms through which more effective communi- cation might be achieved. Much previous research on the psychology of communicating climate science has concentrated on properties of the message and how these might influence message understanding and acceptance (e.g., Budescu, Broomell, & Por, 2009; Gifford & Comeau, 2011; Morton, Rabinovich, Marshall, & Bretschneider, 2011). However, more communicatively oriented research would suggest that the qualities of a message may not be the only, or even the most decisive, aspect of the communication process. In fact, the success of communication often does not reside within the message itself (however masterfully it may be constructed and framed), but within the dynamic interaction between the communicating partners (cf. Delia, O’Keefe, & O’Keefe, 1982; see also Mackie, Worth, & Asuncion, 1990). Of paramount importance to such interactions is communication partners’ ability to recognise each other’s position and the fact that this position may be different from one’s own (e.g. Fussell & Krauss, 1992; Wilkes-Gibbs & Clark, 1992). One conse- quence of this ability is understanding that one’s partner may have distinct motives for communication and accommodating these motives to facilitate exchange and mutual influence (see Giles, Coupland, & Coupland, 1991). The role of these interactive processes has been underexplored in the domain of science communication. The present paper aims to address this gap by exploring how message recipients’ beliefs about communicators’ motives affect the process of climate change communication. We start by briefly reviewing psychological research on the role that communication partners’ beliefs about each other play in the process of communication. Based on this research, we derive hypotheses about the effects of perceived communicator’s motives on effectiveness of science communication, and then test these hypotheses in two experimental studies. 1.1. Beliefs, expectations, and effective communication The idea that communication partners’ beliefs about each other’s qualities and motives might affect the process of communication * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ44 (0) 1392 725527. E-mail address: a.rabinovich@ex.ac.uk (A. Rabinovich). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep 0272-4944/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.09.002 Journal of Environmental Psychology 32 (2012) 11e18