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Crafting Effective Messages in Environmental Conservation Caren Magill 1 Crafting Effective Messages In Environmental Conservation A White Paper in Energy and Environmental Education and Behavior Change By Caren Magill UCLA/Fielding Graduate University _________________________________ Abstract Most people that behave in environmentally conscious ways will claim that they do so because they are motivated by reasons of social responsibility toward conservation. They may even admit that there are economic advantages to doing so. However, they would be largely incorrect. The following literature review will examine the most likely cause for motivating the public to adopt pro-environmental behavior, and how these cognitive reactions can best be put to use the in development of conservation campaign messages.

Crafting effective messages for environmenal conservation

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Page 1: Crafting effective messages for environmenal conservation

Crafting Effective Messages in Environmental Conservation

Caren  Magill            1  

Crafting Effective Messages In Environmental Conservation

A White Paper in Energy and Environmental Education and Behavior Change By Caren Magill UCLA/Fielding Graduate University _________________________________

 

         

Abstract Most people that behave in

environmentally conscious ways will claim that they do so because they are motivated by reasons of social responsibility toward conservation. They may even admit that there are economic advantages to doing so. However, they would be largely incorrect. The following literature review will examine the most likely cause for motivating the public to adopt pro-environmental behavior, and how these cognitive reactions can best be put to use the in development of conservation campaign messages.

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Crafting Effective Messages in Environmental Conservation

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The following white paper will discuss the most effective way to craft pro-social environmental conservation messages for use in public awareness campaigns using the psychological principles of social norms. This review is in no way an exhaustive review of the studies that have been conducted in this area, but highlights some of the more applicable techniques that current research has uncovered. The Power of Normative Social Influence

Social norms are the behaviors of a group of people. Normative social influence is the generally accepted social behavior that an individual will adopt in order be perceived as compliant by a group of people. Individuals have a tendency to conform to social norms in order to be perceived as agreeable. The power of this natural human tendency is extremely effective when crafting social marketing campaigns intended to influence public behavior change. The importance of incorporating normative social influence into campaign messaging is examined in a 2008 study conducted by Nolan, Schultz, Cialdini, Goldstein & Griskevicius.

The premise of the research was to not only examine the effectiveness of normative social influence (using messages that imply that “other people are adopting this behavior”), but to illustrate the under detection of this method as a major motivating factor by the general public. In two separate studies, researchers first uncovered the general opinion of normative social influence as an influencing factor, and then measured the

effectiveness of the normative messages against a number of other influential environmental conservation messages. The first study was a survey based analysis measuring “priori beliefs people held about why they conserve energy and to examine the relative weight that participants would ascribe to social norms as a factor in their decisions to conserve energy at home” (Nolan et al. 2008, p.915). A random selection of 810 participants in the state of California were asked via phone interviews, about their “self-reported efforts to conserve energy, perceived reasons for conservation, beliefs about broad benefits of energy conservation, descriptive normative beliefs regarding energy conservation [how much they thought other people practiced conservation] and demographics” (Nolan et al. 2008, p.915). Further examining the self-reported conservation practices, they asked participants if their motivations were attributed to environmental concern, saving money, social responsibility, or because other people were doing it. They measured the motivating responses for why the participants actually conserved energy against how much they believed energy conservation impacted each variable (economic, environment, social responsibility and how much their neighbors were conserving which was exclusively given a 3 point scale of sometimes, frequently or always).

The responses, measured on a 4-point scale showed that environmental concern was the number one reason why participants practiced energy conservation, followed by societal benefits and

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then cost savings. The normative social influence factor (because other people do it) scored the lowest. According to the researchers, the survey results were convergently valid with existing data suggesting, “people tend to generate causal theories that are self-serving” (Nolan et al. 2008, p.916).

Using the perception of effectiveness data, a 3-step hierarchical multiple regression process was used to examine the effectiveness of the normative social influence statement against demographic information, responses to the 4 reasons for conservation (environment, social, economic & normative) and finally the 3-item normative belief scale about their neighbors.

The results of the regression analysis reported that “despite the perception that other people’s behavior was least influential on their decision to conserve, beliefs of how often their neighbors tried to conserve showed a strong correlation with respondents’ own reported conservation efforts” (Nolan et al. 2008, p.917). This would indicate that there is a significant relationship between how much people practice conservation, based on how much they perceive others doing so as well.

The second study was an experimental design where researchers used normative information to influence energy conservation behavior using a sample of 981 homes in San Marcos, California. Door hangers with 5 experimental messages were randomly assigned one week after their energy meters were recorded, and rerecorded the day of the

experimental intervention. The message samples included a descriptive norm, a self-interest (cost savings), an environmental message, a socially responsible message and just an information only sample, which was control condition. The door hangers also included suggestive action for conserving energy such turning off lights or using a fan instead of air conditioning.

A door-to-door intervention by blind, trained interviewers then confirmed that the homeowner has seen the hanger, recalled the message and of those, they were asked how much the door hanger had motivated them to practice conservation. The 509 qualifying participants then had two subsequent meter readings at one and then two months after the intervention to examine the long and short-term effectiveness of the messages.

The 4-point scale results of the intervention were predicatively valid, with the descriptive norm being rated as the least motivational (at the same rate as the control condition) and the environmental message being rated as most influential. Interestingly, the results of the 5 level independent variable showed that the descriptive norm participants used significantly less energy in the short term (M=12.97) than in the combined other conditions (M=14.17). The long-term results were similar.

The significance of these findings cannot be understated when designing social marketing campaigns. That a “message merely containing information about the conservation behavior of the majority of one’s neighbors – spurred people to conserve more energy

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than did the control message or any of the three other messages” (Nolan et al. 2008, p.920) despite the perceived weak influence of the message is very powerful. A potential confounding variable that should not be overlooked, is that people may already practice their existing conservation methods due to environmental, social or economic concerns. As the researchers suggest, a preaching to the choir effect may have occurred with regard to the motivation of existing practices, and therefore their importance should not be overlooked in message design. Normative Messages, Proximity and Situation The power of popular behavior is only one of several impactful techniques that can be applied to prosocial message construction in order to maximize audience resonance and compliance. The idea of normative group behavior is especially powerful when it addresses a group association in close proximity or immediate situational circumstances. A two part study conducted in 2008 by Goldstien, Cialdini & Griskevicius examined the effectiveness of conservation practices in a hotel using descriptive norms (what people typically do in a situation), highlighting the effectiveness of this model with varying group identity messages (i.e. people who stayed in the same room vs. same hotel, citizen or gender identifications). Building on what has already been discussed, this study confirms the growing body of data that suggests “behavior of others in the social environment

shapes individuals’ interpretations of, and responses to, the situation (Bearden and Etzel, 1982), especially in novel, ambiguous, or uncertain situations” (Goldstien, Cialdini & Griskevicius, 2008, p.2). The value of this knowledge cannot be overstated in crafting social marketing messages. Through clear articulation of pro-social descriptive norms, audiences that are uncertain about appropriate behavior, process an immediate cognitive reaction to the socially predicable option. The first study measured the conformance to a towel reuse program in a well-known hotel chain. The independent variable had two levels, one was a sign with an industry standard message about the importance of reusing towels to save the environment, and the other sign read

“JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. Almost 75% of guests who are asked to participate in our new resource savings program do help by using their towels more than once. You can join your fellow guests in this program to help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay” (Goldstien, Cialdini & Griskevicius, 2008, p.3).

Both signs asked guests to hang the used towel up in a specific place if they cared to reuse them, or leave them on the floor if they wanted them replaced. On the back of both signs, some data about the individual impact of reusing towels had on water and oil conservation was listed. The experiment lasted over an 80-day period, and guests who stayed more than one night in

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the 190-room hotel were measured for their responses to the randomly selected rooms that received either the normative or industry standard conservation sign. Room attendants were trained to record the towel reuse behavior of the guests on a daily basis. The results of the study revealed that the descriptive norm condition produced significantly higher reuse rates (44.1%) than the industry standard environmental protection condition (35.1%). This result shows a conservative estimation of conformity as it measured only the first night of a guest’s eligible stay (assuming they may have reused more than one night), as well, towels that were hung on door knobs were eliminated as behavioral evidence to avoid confounding variables of confused behavioral translation. Only participants that intentionally hung their towels in the appropriately requested place were counted as valid dependant variables. This explains the variance in experimental responses from the industry standard recorded behavior that was listed on the original sign (that 75% of guests reused their towels). The second experiment in the study examined the degree to which social group identification would further influence normative behavior. “According to Festeringer’s (1954) social comparison theory, people often evaluate themselves by comparing themselves to others – especially to others with whom they share similar personal characteristics” (Goldstien, Cialdini & Griskevicius, 2008, p.4). With this in mind, researchers compared the effectiveness of the normative

conservation message in a provincial context (people who stayed in the same room) with a more global context (people who stayed in the same hotel). These messages were compared with conditions of socially relevant identity groups such as fellow citizens or gender classification. The industry standard message was also used as the control condition, for a total of 5 sign conditions. A separate pretest asked a random sample of 53 survey participants which of the 5 conditions they felt would be most influential in motivating them to participate in the towel reuse program due to social identity. In other words, would they be more or less motivated if they were asked to participate as a fellow man or women, citizen, hotel guest, hotel guest in the room they were staying in, or just because it was an pro-environmental thing to do. As expected, the participants showed no significant difference in-group identity motivation, but the environmental motivation was more persuasive than all other groups together (M=5.12). Interestingly, the least persuasive motivational group identity was the shared guest room affiliation (M=1.96). The experimental results were predicatively valid in that all four normative messages proved more effective (44.5%) than the industry standard environmental message (37.2%). Furthermore, the normative same room group identity condition faired better results (49.3%) over the three other normative conditions (same hotel, gender and citizen) combined (42.8%). This data points to the behavioral tendency to not only follow what others typically do, but that the proximity of this

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behavioral norm is of even greater relevance when creating influential messages. The other interesting revelation that this data suggested is that comparatively, the pretest results of what people assumed would be motivational based on social identity groups in no way matched the trend of what actually motivated people to participate in the experiment. Thus, we are forced to question the validity of data that is generated through focus group research. Effective Usage of Descriptive and Injunctive Norms So far we have examined the power of using normative behavior in creating effective prosocial campaign messages, but there is also a caution that is equally important to note when creating messages that deter unwanted behavior. Given that people are persuaded by normative behavior, it’s important to ensure that when addressing undesirable behaviors, they are not inadvertently reinforced. Studies conducted by Cialdini, Reno & Kallgren (2003) have demonstrated that prosocial messages that “focus individuals on the all-too-frequent occurrence of an offense against the environment have the potential to increase the occurrence of that offence” (Cialdini, 2003, p. 105). The key to effectively using descriptive norms (a typical behavior) in message construction is to appropriately align it with an injunctive norm (a socially preferred behavior) to ensure that the appropriate behavior change is being cognitively processed. In one of the many studies conducted in this area by Cialdini,

Reno & Kallgren, research examined the behaviors of visitors to Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, which suffers from petrified wood theft on an ongoing basis. The researchers hypothesized that “in a situation characterized by unfortunate levels of conduct, a message that focuses recipients on the injunctive norm will be superior to messages that focus recipients on the descriptive norm” (Cialdini et al., 2003, p. 107). The field study strategically placed pieces of petrified wood along a main visitor pathway and over the course of 5-weeks, they observed the behavior theft patterns of visitors based on a 2 level independent variable – signage that either dissuaded visitors using a descriptive norm or an injunctive norm. The descriptive norm sign suggested that many people do steal petrified wood, and it’s destroying the natural environment, accompanied with a request to not to take wood from the forest and a picture of three people taking wood (illustrating the popular behavior). The injunctive norm sign asked visitors not to steal wood from the forest, and showed a picture of a single person stealing wood with a circle and a line through the image. This emphasized the lone behavior of one individual, and the line through the image reinforced the disapproval of the action. The results of the study revealed a significant increase of wood theft when viewers were presented with the descriptive norm signage, then with the injunctive norm sign by a variance of 7.92% vs. 1.67% respectively. These figures have significant importance when compared with the theft to visitor ratio, which is just below 3%. (Caildini et al. 2003).

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Conclusion

Based on the evidence examined in this research review, it’s clear that there are several key elements one must consider when designing effective public service messages regarding appropriate environmental conservation behavior. Clearly, even though individuals believe their actions are motivated by socially conscious ideals, the scientific data proves otherwise. The general public is highly influenced by common behavior, regardless of its impact, more often than is consciously acknowledged. With this in mind, PSA creation should address message creation with an emphasis on underscoring prosocial popular behavior and positioning detrimental behavior in an isolated manner with a clear definition of what socially acceptable behavior should be. Furthermore, wherever possible, messages should convey relevance to an audience situation or location with as much personal social recognition as possible in order to maximize success in conforming behavior.

References Cialdini R., Reno, R., Kallgen, C., (1990) A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct:

Recycling the Concept of Norms to Reduce Littering in Public Places. Journal

of Personality and Social Pscyhology. 1990, Vol 58, No. 6, 1015 - 1026 Cialdini, R., (2003) Crafting Normative Messages to Protect the Environment.

Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2003 12: 105 DOI:

10.1111/1467-8721.01242

Goldstein, N., Cialdini, R., Griskevicius, V., (2008) A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels. Journal of

Consumer Research, Inc. Vol 35, 0093-5301/2008/3502-0002 DOI:

10.1086/586910

Nolan, J., Schultz, W., Cialdini, R., Goldstein, N., Griskevicius, V. (2008) Normative

Social Influence is Underdetected. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin; 2008 34: 913 DOI:10.1177/0146167208316691