Positive images of heat waves reduce the effects of messages about extreme heat among U.S. adults

As climate change intensifies, extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and severe, posing growing risks to human health, ecosystems, and infrastructure. In a large-scale survey experiment (N = 3,960 U.S. adults) we examine how the emotional valence of imagery—negative, neutral, or positive—in social media-based news about heat waves influences worry about heat waves, beliefs about climate change’s role in extreme heat, and willingness to share information about heat waves. Results show that identical messages accompanied by either negative or neutral imagery increased worry about heatwaves and strengthened beliefs that climate change is exacerbating heat waves, whereas the same messages accompanied by positive imagery did not. The influence of different images varied within each emotional valence category, highlighting the importance of stimulus sampling. These findings underscore the importance of strategic visual framing in climate communication, especially in multimodal, digital contexts.