Topic three

• Example of positive reinforcement

  • a bill was passed in Oregon which gave people $0.05 for every can or bottle returned- when this happened, the return rate increased by 90%
  • New York also passed a similar bill with an increase from 3% to 77% for glass drinks containers
• Yale model of persuasion

  • source- a message will be seen as more believable if it comes from a source that is credible, attractive and trustworthy
  • message- if the audience is well-educated, then a two-sided argument will be more effective, but if they are less well-educated then a one-sided argument will be more persuasive.
  • recipient- if the audience are already committed to an existing position and resistant to change, then smaller attitude changes should be attempted
  • situation- messages are effective when communicated in informal situations not formal situations
• Luyben and Bailey

  • investigate if people are more likely to recycle if it is more convenient
  • they increased the number of recycling facilities available in 4 mobile home parks
  • this led to a 52% increase in recycling of newpapers
  • in a further two parks, they gave toys to children who recycled the newspapers which led to a 92% recycling rate
• Cialdini

  • worked with a large hotel to encourage guests to reuse towels rather than have them replaced each day
  • 260 guest rooms received one of 5 messages
  • the message which established the social norm of what others were doing led to the highest levels of reuse- 41% ('join your fellow citizens in helping to save the environment')
  • the lowest message was about saving energy for the hotel-20%
  • so making people believe that it is the social norm to recycle should lead to more environmentally conscious behaviour
• Lord - sample

  • 140 households in a North Eastern Metropolitan community of the US
  • quota sampling to make sure they were representative of the area
  • slight bias towards upmarket neighbourhoods
• Lord method

  • stage 1- discrete observations of the total number of items put out for recycling
  • stage 2- the next day, a leaflet was placed on the front door of each household
  • the leaflets could be advertisements, publicity (an article was described as having appeared in a local news publication) or personal influence (a letter addressed directly to the homeowner)
  • stage 3- the next week the observation of recycling was repeated to measure behaviour
  • stage 4- the next day, students administer a questionnaire to households to get data about recycling beliefs and attitudes
• Lord results

  • the experimental conditions showed a significant increase in both the number of recycling categories and the total number of items recycled
  • those who received positively framed messages had a significantly more favourable attitudes towards recycling than those who received a negatively framed message
  • the advert led to stronger beliefs about the benefits of recycling
  • but a personal message led to the greatest increase in recycling behaviour, especially when negatively framed