Jeff Conlin

Purpose This study investigates the influence of individual- and country-level factors on citizen members’ attitude and actions regarding plastic waste. At the individual level, it assesses the influence of the diversity of environmental news use from traditional media, online social networks, and other internet sources on the public’s support for policy and green behaviors related to plastic waste. Design/methodology/approach We utilized secondary survey data collected from 27 European countries by Eurobarometer. Results The two-level analysis show that several individual factors including gender, age, political ideology, risk perception, and most importantly diversity of sources in environmental news use , from all three types of media sources, was positively associated with participants’ policy support and green behaviors related to plastic waste. This research also found the influence of several country-level variables on green behaviors toward plastic waste. Implications When assessing support for plastic waste control, various factors at both levels (i.e., country and individual) need to be considered to mobilize the public. Findings suggest extending the theoretical model of social cognitive theory to include more country-level factors especially in cross-national comparison. Originality/value This study shed lights on understanding factors that could influence public policy support and green behaviors with regards to plastic waste.

The purpose of the present study is to explore how narrative political ads interact with other message strategies in affecting recipients’ ad responses. To accomplish that, we conducted a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment whereby participants viewed political ads manipulated by message format (non-narrative vs. narrative), message valence (negative vs. positive), and message focus (issue vs. character). Results suggested that narrative political ads elicited favorable advertising evaluations via increased transportation and reduced counterarguing. Moreover, when political ads attacked the competing candidate’s character, the narrative message led to higher levels of empathy and lower levels of counterarguing than the non-narrative message. Reduced counterarguing was the mechanism through which favorable ad evaluations were generated. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications.