Temporal Frames of Environmental Threats
(A2025-125959)

AUTHORS

Ozlem Tetik, London Business School; David Faro, London Business School

ABSTRACT

Scientists, NGOs, and the press communicate temporal predictions about environmental threats either in terms of the calendar date by which a threat is expected to materialize (e.g., “Water shortage by 2040”) or in terms of the amount of time left until the threat (e.g., “Water shortage within 20 years”). Our archival analysis of news articles on climate change shows that date frames are much more frequently used than time-left frames. Despite this common practice, across four online studies and a field experiment, we find that time-left frames make environmental threats feel closer in time than date frames and are more effective in garnering consumers’ engagement and donations. These findings extend and qualify past research which showed that, in the context of intertemporal choice, time-left frames made receipt of money in the future feel farther in time than date frames. Our findings can inform communication of environmental threats to encourage environmental action.