By acknowledging that people are cognitive misers, this study proposes that people may rely on the illusion of knowing as cognitive devices for attitudinal or behavioral change, in addition to factual knowledge. Accordingly, this study shifted the focus of inquiry from assessing media effects in increasing factual knowledge to assessing how media consumption relates to the illusion of knowing. Using a nationally door-to-door survey in Singapore (N = 705), the results revealed that individuals’ attention to media messages about climate change and elaboration of these messages were positively related to the illusion of knowing. Furthermore, elaboration had moderating effects on the relationship between media attention and the illusion of knowing. These findings suggest that media consumption of climate change messages could drive the illusion of knowing, which is speculated to account for pro-environmental behaviors in addressing climate change. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
AdgerWN (2003) Social capital, collective action, and adaptation to climate change. Economic Geography79(4): 387–404.
2.
AldyJEOrszagPRStiglitzJE (2001) Climate change: An agenda for global collective action. In: Conference on the timing of climate change policies, Washington, DC, 11 October. Arlington, VA: Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
3.
AlickeMD (1985) Global self-evaluation as determined by the desirability and controllability of trait adjectives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology49: 1621–1630.
4.
BoykoffMT (2011) Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
BrownJD (1986) Evaluations of self and others: Self-enhancement biases in social judgments. Social Cognition4(4): 353–376.
6.
BrucksM (1985) The effects of product class knowledge on information search behavior. Journal of Consumer Research12(1): 1–16.
7.
ChaffeeSHSchleuderJ (1986) Measurement and effects of attention to media news. Human Communication Research13(1): 76–107.
8.
ChangCHPascuaL (2014) Uncovering the nexus between scientific discourse and school geography in Singapore students’ understanding of climate change. Research in Geographic Education16(1): 41–56.
9.
ChenMF (2015) Self-efficacy or collective efficacy within the cognitive theory of stress model: Which more effectively explains people’s self-reported pro-environmental behavior?Journal of Environmental Psychology42: 66–75.
10.
ChuSCKamalS (2008) The effect of perceived blogger credibility and argument quality on message elaboration and brand attitudes: An exploratory study. Journal of Interactive Advertising8(2): 26–37.
11.
DavidsonKPrkachinK (1997) Optimism and unrealistic optimism have an interacting impact on health-promoting behavior and knowledge changes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin23(6): 617–625.
12.
DavisonWP (1983) The third-person effect in communication. Public Opinion Quarterly47(1): 1–15.
13.
DijkstraEMGoedhartMJ (2012) Development and validation of the ACSI: Measuring students’ science attitudes, pro-environmental behavior, climate change attitudes and knowledge. Environmental Education Research18(6): 733–749.
14.
DunningD (2011) The Dunning–Kruger effect: On being ignorant of one’s own ignorance. In: OlsonJMZannaMP (eds) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 44. Cambridge: Academic Press, pp. 247–296.
15.
DunningD (2012) Self-Insight: Roadblocks and Detours on the Path to Knowing Thyself. London: Psychology Press.
16.
EvelandWPJr (2001) The cognitive mediation model of learning from the news: Evidence from nonelection, off-year election, and presidential election contexts. Communication Research28(5): 571–601.
17.
EvelandWPJrShahDVKwakN (2003) Assessing causality in the cognitive mediation model: A panel study of motivations, information processing, and learning during campaign 2000. Communication Research30(4): 359–386.
18.
EvelandWPCorteseJ (2004) How web site organization influences free recall, factual knowledge, and knowledge structure density. Human Communication Research30(2): 208–233.
19.
FabrigarLRPettyRESmithSMCritesSLJr(2006) Understanding knowledge effects on attitude-behavior consistency: The role of relevance, complexity, and amount of knowledge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology90(4): 556–577.
20.
FelsonRB (1984) The effect of self-appraisals of ability on academic performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology47(5): 944–952.
21.
FiskeSTTaylorSE (1991) Social Cognition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
22.
GuntherACMundyP (1993) Biased optimism and the third-person effect. Journalism Quarterly70(1): 58–67.
23.
GuptaJ (2010) A history of international climate change policy. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change1(5): 636–653.
24.
HeiderF (1958) The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York, NY: Wiley.
25.
HollanderBA (1995) The new news and the 1992 presidential campaign: Perceived vs. actual political knowledge. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly72(4): 786–798.
26.
KahlorLDunwoodySGriffinRJNeuwirthK (2006) Seeking and processing information about impersonal risk. Science Communication28(2): 163–194.
27.
KatzELazarsfeldPFRoperE (2017) Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications. London: Routledge.
28.
KimJRubinAM (1997) The variable influence of audience activity on media effects. Communication Research24(2): 107–135.
29.
KrugerJDunningD (1999) Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology77(6): 1121–1134.
30.
LadwigPDalrympleKEBrossardDScheufeleDACorleyEA (2012) Perceived familiarity or factual knowledge? Comparing operationalizations of scientific understanding. Science and Public Policy39(6): 761–774.
31.
LarocheMBergeronJBarbaro-ForleoG (2001) Targeting consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Journal of Consumer Marketing18(6): 503–520.
32.
LeeEJKimYW (2016) Effects of infographics on news elaboration, acquisition, and evaluation: Prior knowledge and issue involvement as moderators. New Media & Society18(8): 1579–1598.
33.
LeeEWHoSS (2015) The perceived familiarity gap hypothesis: Examining how media attention and reflective integration relate to perceived familiarity with nanotechnology in Singapore. Journal of Nanoparticle Research17(5): 1–15.
34.
LiaoYHoSSYangX (2016) Motivators of pro-environmental behavior: Examining the underlying processes in the influence of presumed media influence model. Science Communication38(1): 51–73.
35.
LinkMWBattagliaMPFrankelMROsbornLMokdadAH (2008) A comparison of address-based sampling (ABS) versus Random-Digit Dialing (RDD) for general population surveys. Public Opinion Quarterly72(1): 6–27.
36.
LorenzoniIJonesMTurnpennyJR (2007) Climate change, human genetics, and post-normality in the UK. Futures39(1): 65–82.
37.
LubellM (2002) Environmental activism as collective action. Environment and Behavior34(4): 431–454.
38.
McLeodDMDetenberBHEvelandWP (2001) Behind the third-person effect: Differentiating perceptual processes for self and other. Journal of Communication51(4): 678–695.
39.
McQuailD (2001) McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 4th edn.London: SAGE.
40.
MetcalfeJ (1998) Cognitive optimism: Self-deception or memory-based processing heuristics?Personality and Social Psychology Review2(2): 100–110.
OlsonM (1970) The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
46.
ParkCWLessigVP (1981) Familiarity and its impact on consumer decision biases and heuristics. Journal of Consumer Research8(2): 223–230.
47.
ParkCWGardnerMPThukralVK (1988) Self-perceived knowledge: Some effects on information processing for a choice. The American Journal of Psychology101(3): 401–424.
48.
ParkCY (2001) News media exposure and self-perceived knowledge: The illusion of knowing. International Journal of Public Opinion Research13(4): 419–425.
49.
PerseEM (1990) Audience selectivity and involvement in the newer media environment. Communication Research17(5): 675–697.
50.
PettyRECacioppoJTSchumannD (1983) Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: The moderating role of involvement. Journal of Consumer Research10(2): 135–146.
51.
RosenthalSLeeEWJHoSSDetenberBH (2013) Perceptions of climate change in Singapore and the United States. In: Proceedings of the 2013 conference on communication and the environment. Cincinnati, OH: The International Environmental Communication Association.
52.
SalmonCT (1986) Perspectives on involvement in consumer and communication research. Progress in Communication Sciences7: 243–268.
53.
SampeiYAoyagi-UsuiM (2009) Mass-media coverage, its influence on public awareness of climate-change issues, and implications for Japan’s national campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Global Environmental Change19(2): 203–212.
54.
SlaterMDRasinskiKA (2005) Media exposure and attention as mediating variables influencing social risk judgments. Journal of Communication55(4): 810–827.
55.
StammKRClarkFEblacasPR (2000) Mass communication and public understanding of environmental problems: The case of global warming. Public Understanding of Science9(3): 219–237.
56.
StoutenboroughJWVedlitzA (2014) The effect of perceived and assessed knowledge of climate change on public policy concerns: An empirical comparison. Environmental Science & Policy37: 23–33.
57.
TaylorSEBrownJD (1988) Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin103(2): 193–210.
58.
TaylorSEBrownJD (1994) Positive illusions and well-being revisited: Separating fact from fiction. Psychological Bulletin116(1): 21–27.
59.
TesserA (1986) Some effects of self-evaluation maintenance on cognition and action. In: SorrentinoRMHigginsET (eds) Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundations of Social Behavior. New York, NY: Guilford Press, pp. 435–464.
60.
TesserA (1988) Towards a self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior. In: BerkowitzL (ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 21. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, pp. 181–227.
61.
TichenorPJDonohueGAOlienCN (1970) Mass media flow and differential growth in knowledge. Public Opinion Quarterly34(2): 159–170.
62.
TverskyAKahnemanD (1992) Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty5(4): 297–323.
63.
ValloneRPRossLLepperMR (1985) The hostile media phenomenon: Biased perception and perceptions of media bias in coverage of the Beirut massacre. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology49: 577–585.
64.
WeberMKoehlerC (2017) Illusions of knowledge: Media exposure and citizens’ perceived political competence. International Journal of Communication11: 2387–2410.
65.
WeiRLoVHLuHY (2008) Third-person effects of health news: Exploring the relationships among media exposure, presumed media influence, and behavioral intentions. American Behavioral Scientist52(2): 261–277.
66.
WeiRLoVHLuHY (2010) The third-person effect of tainted food product recall news: Examining the role of credibility, attention, and elaboration for college students in Taiwan. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly87(3–4): 598–614.
67.
WuLWWangCY (2012) Satisfaction and zone of tolerance: The moderating roles of elaboration and loyalty programs. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal22(1): 38–57.
68.
XueF (2008) The moderating effects of product involvement on situational brand choice. Journal of Consumer Marketing25(2): 85–94.
69.
YangXChuahASLeeEWHoSS (2017) Extending the cognitive mediation model: Examining factors associated with perceived familiarity and factual knowledge of nanotechnology. Mass Communication and Society20(3): 403–426.
70.
ZhaoX (2009) Media use and global warming perceptions: A snapshot of the reinforcing spirals. Communication Research36(5): 698–723.
