The Use of Psychographics to Increase Climate Change Awareness

This research project attempts to answer the question “How effective are targeted ads using psychographics at persuading people to care about climate change?” We believe that the answer will be very effective, as we have seen cases in the past where targeted ads, when coupled with the power of Big Data and psychographics, had a great influence over shopping habits and election results for large groups of people in America (Duhigg and “Cambridge Analytica”). Our goal is to convince people that climate change is a threat to them and that they should support campaigns to combat it. This study will focus on the community of people at UMass Amherst, but it is our hope that the tactics we employ here could eventually be used to persuade people about the reality of climate change nationwide.