A critical step in tackling climate change involves structural, system-level changes facilitating action. Despite their ubiquity, little is known about how internet search algorithms portray climate change, and how these portrayals impact concern and action. In a sample of 49 countries, we found that nationwide climate concern, but not nation-level climate impact, predicted the emotional arousal caused by climate change Google Image Search outputs, as rated by a naive sample (n = 383). In a follow-up experiment we randomly assigned another sample (n = 899) to receive the climate change image outputs resulting from searches conducted in countries high or low in pre-existing climate concern, and found that participants exposed to images from countries with high pre-existing concern (compared to low) became more concerned about climate change, supportive of climate policy and likely to act pro-environmentally, suggesting a cycle of climate sentiment propagation systemically facilitated by internet search algorithms. We discuss the implications of these findings for climate action interventions.

应对气候变化的一个关键步骤涉及促进行动的结构性、系统层面的变化。尽管它们无处不在，但人们对互联网搜索算法如何描绘气候变化，以及这些描述如何影响关注和行动知之甚少。在 49 个国家/地区的样本中，我们发现全国性的气候关注，而不是国家层面的气候影响，预测了气候变化 Google 图片搜索结果结果引起的情绪唤醒，正如天真样本 （n = 383） 所评分的那样。在后续实验中，我们随机分配了另一个样本 （n = 899） 来接收在预先存在的气候关注度高或低的国家进行搜索得出的气候变化图像输出，发现暴露于预先存在高度关注度（与低）国家的图像的参与者变得更加关注气候变化，支持气候政策并可能采取亲环境行动， 这表明互联网搜索算法系统性地促进了气候情绪传播的循环。我们讨论了这些发现对气候行动干预的影响。