Exploring how climate change images can impact travel behavioural intentions
A pilot project, funded by the University’s urban living fund, explores how images of climate change can impact intentions to travel more sustainably.
Dr Candice Howarth, Dr Iis Tussyadiah, Dr Joe Kantenbacher and Dr Stella Wen Tian from the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and Dr Chris Jones from the Department of Psychology have teamed up to conduct this innovative study.
Transport is the largest source of air pollution in the UK with impacts on air quality and health in urban environments (BEIS, 2017). Climate change is often used as a mechanism to encourage sustainable travel behaviour, however car ownership and use remains high. The question of how to more effectively increase sustainable urban travel practices remains a pertinent one.
This project explores the impact of climate change and air pollution images on sustainable travel behaviour intentions in an urban context. This work will examine whether these images increase salience to sustainable transport solutions and are effective in increasing sustainable urban transportation behaviour intentions.
The project comprises a lab-based study and an online questionnaire to investigate how people respond to specific transport- and environment-related images, enabling the team to assess the effectiveness of these images in shaping travel behaviour intentions. This project directly tackles important issues highlighted in the UK’s 25-year environment plan and the Department for Transport’s policy priority areas.
The project will provide important insights into how society responds to climate change and how this translates to travel behaviour intentions, within significant implications for health and wellbeing.
For more information please contact Dr Candice Howarth.