Role model narratives are underutilized in Instagram and TikTok climate action posts

Role model narratives-stories about specific people taking recommended actions-are a proven communication strategy for encouraging socially beneficial behaviors such as climate action. However, the extent to which climate activists share role model narratives on social media has yet to be investigated. To measure the prevalence of climate action role model narratives on social media, we manually collected Instagram and TikTok posts tagged with the hashtags #climateaction and #climateactivist (dated between August 2021 and October 2024) and conducted a content analysis of the posts (Instagram N = 457 and TikTok N = 188). We examined the types of actions featured in role model narratives, the presence and nature of any calls to action, and whether role model narratives are correlated with higher engagement than other types of content. We found that role model narratives appear in only 11% of the Instagram posts (N = 48) and 19% of the TikTok posts (N = 35), which suggests that they are an underutilized communication approach. Furthermore, only 28% of the role model narratives included calls to action, with joining an organization being the most common. Additionally, role model narratives did not have significantly different engagement compared to other posts in the sample, but were represented among the 10 top-performing posts. Given the ease with which the role model narrative format can be adopted and the powerful reach of social media, climate groups and advocates have a unique opportunity to share their stories and lead by example, using their platforms to inspire greater and more concerted climate action.