Initial affect shapes risk-benefit information processing and public support for carbon dioxide removal technologies
- 1University of Basel Faculty of Psychology
- 2Stanford University
Abstract
Given the accelerating climate crisis, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are becoming increasingly important, while public support may play a relevant role in their implementation. This support is influenced by how citizens inform themselves about the technology. While prior research has examined public support under conditions of no or predefined information provision, little is known about the factors that shape how individuals actively select information about CDR and integrate it into their preferences about the technology. Here, we investigate how initial affect towards CDR shapes laypersons’ selection and evaluation of benefit-related versus risk-related information about the technology and how these processes influence subsequent policy support. In a preregistered study with 714 U.S. participants, we introduced a novel information-sampling task, in which participants could freely choose which information about CDR to attend to, followed by a policy choice experiment assessing public support of CDR technologies. In line with our hypotheses, participants’ initial affect influenced their information search: more initial positive affect towards CDR was associated with a higher likelihood to select benefit-related versus risk-related information about CDR. This confirmatory information search, in turn, was associated with immediate changes in affect towards the technology, especially when the information was perceived as persuasive. These affective changes across information search carried over to subsequent decisions to support climate policies in general and policy portfolios including CDR in particular. Overall, our findings highlight the reciprocal relationship between affect, endogenous information search, and support for CDR technologies.
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BibTeX
@article{veen2026initial,
title = {{Initial affect shapes risk-benefit information processing and public support for carbon dioxide removal technologies}},
author = {Jessica F. van Veen and Zahra Rahmani Azad and Gabrielle Wong-Parodi and Ulf J. J. J. J. Hahnel},
journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aeb81e},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeb81e},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Initial affect shapes risk-benefit information processing and public support for carbon dioxide removal technologies
AU - Jessica F. van Veen
AU - Zahra Rahmani Azad
AU - Gabrielle Wong-Parodi
AU - Ulf J. J. J. J. Hahnel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Environmental Research Letters
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/aeb81e
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeb81e
AB - Given the accelerating climate crisis, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are becoming increasingly important, while public support may play a relevant role in their implementation. This support is influenced by how citizens inform themselves about the technology. While prior research has examined public support under conditions of no or predefined information provision, little is known about the factors that shape how individuals actively select information about CDR and integrate it into their preferences about the technology. Here, we investigate how initial affect towards CDR shapes laypersons’ selection and evaluation of benefit-related versus risk-related information about the technology and how these processes influence subsequent policy support. In a preregistered study with 714 U.S. participants, we introduced a novel information-sampling task, in which participants could freely choose which information about CDR to attend to, followed by a policy choice experiment assessing public support of CDR technologies. In line with our hypotheses, participants’ initial affect influenced their information search: more initial positive affect towards CDR was associated with a higher likelihood to select benefit-related versus risk-related information about CDR. This confirmatory information search, in turn, was associated with immediate changes in affect towards the technology, especially when the information was perceived as persuasive. These affective changes across information search carried over to subsequent decisions to support climate policies in general and policy portfolios including CDR in particular. Overall, our findings highlight the reciprocal relationship between affect, endogenous information search, and support for CDR technologies.
SN - 1748-9326
ER -