Promoting Protection Against a Threat That Evokes Positive Affect: The Case of Heat Waves in the United Kingdom

Heatwaves can cause death, illness, and discomfort, and are expected to become more frequent as a result of climate change. Yet, UK residents have positive feelings about hot summers that may undermine their willingness to protect themselves against heat. We randomly assigned UK participants to one of three intervention strategies intended to promote heat protection, or to a control group. The first strategy aimed to build on the availability heuristic by asking participants to remember high summer temperatures, but it elicited thoughts of pleasantly hot summer weather. The second strategy aimed to build on the affect heuristic by evoking negative affect about summer temperatures, but it evoked thoughts of unpleasantly cold summer weather. The third strategy combined these two approaches and succeeded in evoking thoughts of unpleasantly hot summer weather. Across two experiments, the third (combined) strategy increased participants’ expressed intentions to protect against heat compared to the control group, while performing at least as well as the two component strategies. We discuss implications for developing interventions about other ‘pleasant hazards.’