The Effects of Climate Change Meta-Knowledge on Selective Exposure, Selective Elaboration, and Behavioral Intentions

This experiment investigates how individuals’ meta-knowledge (the self-perception of one’s knowledge) influences selective exposure to and elaboration of information about climate change with climate change self-schema as possible mediator. Participants’ ( N = 510) meta-knowledge was manipulated by receiving fake feedback after a climate change knowledge test. There were no group differences in selective exposure and selective elaboration. Correlational evidence tentatively speaks for a “rich-get-richer” process of information selection and elaboration. This could be explained through climate change self-schemas which differed significantly between conditions ( d = 0.26) and correlated positively with selective exposure ( r = .36) and elaboration ( r = .28).