Are interactive PSA formats always effective? The interaction between empathy-inducing message content, carousel formats, and connectedness with nature in pro-environmental campaigns

Today’s media landscape allows utilizing more interactive formats to deliver pro-environmental public service announcements (PSAs). A PSA format with more interactivity (e.g., carousels) can engagingly deliver message content, but risk distracting people from fully processing essential information in it. The present study examined the effective combination of empathy-inducing message content (non-identifiable statistical victims vs. a single identified victim in Study1; complete vs. moderate verbal anchoring in Study 2) and its delivery format (a single page vs. a carousel format) in conjunction with an individual’s connectedness with nature (Study 2) to increase individuals’ pro-environmental behavior intention through empathy. Findings suggest no inherent superiority of one PSA format over the other; instead, the comparative advantage of a more (less) interactive format becomes apparent when PSA content characteristics and one’s environmental background are considered together. The current investigation provides theoretical and practical implications for the use of interactivity on social media.