Scenario:
As a research psychologist, you have been hired by Australia’s Climate Council to
conduct research into the factors that influence climate change action. Based on a
review of the recent literature into science communication, you know that simply
providing people with the facts about climate change has been ineffective in
influencing acceptance of anthropogenic climate change and prompting
behavioural action. Instead, you think that how the information is communicated
(i.e., framed) will influence engagement with climate change. You want to
investigate whether gain-framed or positive-framed messages (e.g., highlighting
the benefits of behavioural change) are more (or less) effective in producing
behavioural change than loss-framed or negative-framed messages (e.g.,
highlighting the negatives of behavioural inaction). You plan to design a study
where you manipulate the different message frames for communicating climate
change evidence, and the potential consequences or benefits of behavioural action
or inaction. The dependent variable in this study is behavioural intention towards
climate change action, measured using a 22-item likert-response style
questionnaire that is summed to produce a mean score for each participant.
Describe a research design that could be used to investigate this research question (and would be suitable for analysis with a two-way mixed design ANOVA). Make sure you identify which is the between-groups factor and which is the repeated-measures factor. You must also specify how many levels of each factor you will have. Provide a brief justification of how your design will answer the research question.