PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIORS DR. PA HER ASSISTANT PROF. PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL SCIENCES

Outcomes By the end of the session, I hope you can--- – Understand the psychological principles related to behavior change Provide Usable Information Cash/Tangible Rewards Verbal or Written Feedback to Promote Efficacy Social Norms – Explain why a research perspective is important when creating behavioral change initiatives, campaigns, or strategies

Which disciplines study behavioral change? Behaviorism (Learning Psychology) – The scientific study of how experience or practice results in a relatively permanent change in behavior Social Psychology – The scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by other people Environmental Psychology – The scientific study of how people influence the environment and how the environment influences people Behavioral Economics—Environmental – “the hybrid offspring of psychology and economics” – a branch of economics that studies how social, cognitive, and emotional factors influence economic decisions.

Why an Experimental Approach? Experimental methods and tools help us test the effects of relevant variables on environmentally protective behaviors. – Intuitive interventions do not always work

Changing a Behavior Pick a habit/behavior – Using a refillable water bottle – Idling while waiting to pick up your partner at work/school – Hanging laundry rather than using the dryer – Using public transportation – Littering – Exercising What are some ways you can get people to start adopting the new behavior?

“The Rationale” Education Attitude Change Behavioral Change

1971 Ad Council Environmental Advertisement – Said to be one of the most memorable and successful ads of the 20 th Century. – Works for instigating attitude change, but does not provide any information to practically change behavior

Assumptions About Behavioral Change 1 Reinforcement Behaviors, emotions, and thoughts don’t necessarily correspond. – “Educating” people often does not change either their attitudes or behaviors. – Even when attitudes change, behaviors don’t necessarily follow. Delayed reinforcement!

Climate Change Scary!!!!!! Because?????

11 Public Perceptions: Climate Change & Environment National Public Opinion Polls: – 82% - Climate change is real (60% caused by human activities) 1. – 65% - concerned “a great deal” or “a fair amount” about climate change 2. – 53% - Climate change is one of the most serious long-term issues facing our country 3. 1 Fox News Survey, 2007; 2 Pew Research Center, 2008; 3 Presidential Debate on Science Survey, 2008; 4 Clean Air Partnership & Vanderbilt University,

APAAPA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change Uncertainty – Research has shown that uncertainty over climate change reduces the frequency of “green” behavior. Mistrust – Evidence shows that most people don’t believe the risk messages of scientists or government officials. Denial – A substantial minority of people believe climate change is not occurring or that human activity has little or nothing to do with it, according to various polls. Undervaluing Risks –many people believe environmental conditions will worsen in 25 years. While this may be true, this thinking could lead people to believe that changes can be made later. Lack of Control – People believe their actions would be too small to make a difference and choose to do nothing. Habit – Ingrained behaviors are extremely resistant to permanent change while others change slowly. Habit is the most important obstacle to pro-environmental behavior

Assumptions About Behavioral Change Many behaviors that are predictable are not economically “rational” – We often don’t know why we do what we do – We can’t always tell when we’re being influenced Many things that influence us do so below the threshold of consciousness Cialdini’s Influence: Science and Practice Charles Duhigg The Power of Habits

Strategies for Promoting Behavioral Change Provide Usable Information Cash/Tangible Rewards Verbal or Written Feedback to Promote Efficacy Social Norms

I. Usable Information

Green NYC Ads - Practical Ways to Behavior Change

Think About the Behavior You Wanted to Change What are some ways you could use usable information to get people to start adopting the new behavior?

II. Rewards/Reinforcement

Operant Any behavior by which an individual operates on his or her environment

Rewards

Cash/Tangible Rewards

*note that symbolic things can also represent a consequence (e.g. getting a Hummer may indicate higher social status vs. riding the bus)

Social Meaning can have ‘value’ The social meaning or symbolic significance behaviors will determine their probability of occurrence, e.g., – If behaviors like, public transport, or recycling connote low status, they will be avoided.

The Habit Loop: Cue as a Reward CRAVING From the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

From the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Habit Loop From the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Think About the Behavior You Wanted to Change What are some ways you could provide immediate reinforcement to get people to start adopting the new behavior? – Could be positive or negative reinforcement – What did RecycleBank do to engage the consumer?RecycleBank

III. Feedback to confirm we are good at what we do

Verbal or Written Feedback

32 Feedback We are less motivated to engage in behaviors that we feel are ineffective. Particularly important for frequent & easy to change behaviors. Promoting Efficacy: – Message framing Stress the connection between behaviors and outcomes. – Feedback Feedback meters associated with 5 to 60% reduction in energy use. Continuous feedback is most effective (feedback meters) Periodic feedback is better than no feedback (public announcements) Petersen et al. (2007)

Think About the Behavior You Wanted to Change What are some ways you could use feedback to get people to start adopting the new behavior?

IV. Social Norms

35 Using Social Norms Social Norms: – Pressure to comply (social approval) –what we ought to do to fit in – Pressure to conform (popularity, fitting in) –what most people do We often change our behavior to accommodate social norms. – 75% of participants gave an obviously wrong answer (Asch, 1951). XA B C

Social Norm Example: Petrified Forest Experiment Message Framing is Important and can have boomerang effects Petrified Forest Experiment

Environmental Theft: The (Negative) Power of Descriptive Norms Message at Petrified Forest National Park(Arizona)—OLD SIGN Your heritage is being vandalized every day by theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time. Conveys the message that “everyone is taking it” Experiment (Cialdini and colleagues; 2003) Marked pieces of petrified wood in park Injunctive Norm Condition (new sign Sign #1 Read): Please don’t remove petrified wood from the Park, in order to preserve the natural state of the Petrified Forest. Descriptive Norm Condition (new sign Sign #2 Read): Many past visitors have removed petrified wood from the Park, changing the natural state of the Petrified Forest.

Boomerang effects - Descriptive Norm Source: Cialdini et al. (2006). Activating and aligning social norms for persuasive impact. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Establishes a negative norm

Boomerang effects - Descriptive Norm Establishes a positive norm

Boomerang effects - Injunctive Norm Establishes social responsibility norm “It’s bad”

Results Most Steal Most Don’t Don’t/It’s Bad Percentage of Marked Wood Stolen Theft Rates: Injunctive Norm (1.67%) vs. Descriptive Norm (7.92%) Conclusion? When the socially undesirable action is prevalent (lots of theft), PSAs should focus on injunctive (not descriptive) norm

Littering: Littering: More Evidence for the Power of Descriptive Norms Cialdini, Reno and Kallgren (1990) Subjects find a handbill on their windshield which they can litter Environment is either clean or littered Clean environment conveys descriptive norm that people don’t litter Littered environment conveys descriptive norm that people do litter Subject sees another person (confederate) litter or not Observe whether people litter – Results 

Social Psychology

Person littering

Recycling Towels in Hotels: Even More Evidence for the Power of Descriptive Norms

Old Message: This seems like a message that would solicit the desired result. That is because we are judging based on what WE would do. In the following experiment updated notes were left establishing social norms.

Below “Help Save Environment” Control: HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. You can show your respect for nature and help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay Social Norm: 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. Recycling Towels in Hotels: Even More Evidence for the Power of Descriptive Norms Goldstein, Cialdini, & Griskevicius (2008, J of Consumer Research)

A room with a viewpoint

Social Norm Messages

Curbside Recyling

Curbside recycling

 Mandated by most cities in order to meet 50% diversion requirements set by State.  Field experiment with 600 households for 8 weeks  3 groups:  1. Information only 2. No treatment control, 3. Descriptive social norm feedback (informing what neighbors are doing)  Baseline (4 weeks), intervention (4 weeks), follow-up (4 weeks)

Normative-based interventions Normative Feedback Information Only No Treatment (control) Change from baseline to follow-up for the normative feedback condition is significant (p<.05), and corresponds to a 19% increase in recycling rates! Source: Schultz, P. W. (1999). Changing behavior with normative feedback interventions: A field experiment of curbside recycling. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21, 25-36

Think About the Behavior You Wanted to Change These door handles and yellow and blue cubbies served as ‘cues’ for the routine. What are some ways you could use ‘cues’ to get people to start adopting the new behavior or ‘norm’? – How will you make that behavior a social norm?

Final Thoughts “Educating” people often does not change their attitudes or behaviors. We might be more successful by just targeting the behavior without worrying about what people believe Harnessing the power of human nature is always a good bet