In search of value: the intricate impacts of benefit perception, knowledge, and emotion about climate change on marine protection support

The benefit perception of aquatic ecosystems, knowledge, and emotion about climate change influence peoples’ support for marine protection. However, their interaction effects remain understudied. The current study explores the intricate interaction effect of the three factors on marine protection support. Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics was employed on a dataset of 709 stakeholders from 42 countries. The statistical analysis shows that when stakeholders perceive ocean ecosystems to have little utility in mitigating climate change, climate change knowledge and concern are positively associated with marine protection support. Nevertheless, in the scenarios where stakeholders perceive the benefits of ocean ecosystems, the effect of climate change knowledge becomes conditional on the worry level. If stakeholders are concerned about climate change, those with a greater level of climate change knowledge will associate with a higher level of marine protection support. Otherwise, greater climate change knowledge will result in lower support. These findings highlight the importance of emotion in directing climate change knowledge’s effect on marine protection support. Linking people’s concerns to the consequences of climate change can help improve climate change communication effectiveness.