Media Effects, Emotion, and Race: Extending the Climate Change Risk Perception Model in the United States

In extant risk and crisis literature, there is evidence that understanding risk perceptions toward a threat can predict related attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors. The climate change risk perception model (CCRPM) argues that climate change risk perceptions are predicted by four broad factors: cognitive, experiential, socio-cultural, and socio-demographic. This extension paper, proposes incorporating media effects literature, specifically the first- and third-person effect, an updated discrete emotion scale, and racial identity, to improve the predictive and explanatory power of the CCRPM. This cross-sectional study applies the CCRPM to a quota sample of United States adults (n = 832). While the results of this study suggest that neither the first-person effect nor the third-person effect are predictors of climate change risk perceptions, data do support a positive relationship between perceived media influence on others and subsequent climate change attitudes. Results also provide evidence that consideration of an emotion scale where discrete emotional responses are included, is the largest predictor of risk perceptions. Finally, consistent with previous scholarship, results suggest that race is a significant predictor of climate change risk perceptions, with people of color having higher risk perceptions than white participants.