Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences Student Proposal Cover Page

Transcription

1 Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences Student Proposal Cover Page Applicant Information Applicant name: CHIRAAG MITTAL Project title: Facilitating pro-environmental behaviors: A life history theory perspective on better communication strategies Department: Marketing College: Carlson School of Management Degree program: PhD Faculty advisor Dr. Vladas Griskevicius, name & vladasg@umn.edu Dept. Head: Dr. Barbara Loken Dept. Head s bloken@umn.edu NA Dean: Dr. Sri Zaheer Dean s szaheer@umn.edu How did you hear about this funding opportunity? VIP The Brief Advisor Dept. /newsletter OVPR website Other Funding Total amount of funding requested: $ 5279 Executive summary (maximum 200 words) Many communications that aim to persuade people to engage in pro-environmental behavior use tactics that portray the world as dangerous and unpredictable (e.g. Recycle. Our planet is facing an uncertain future ). However, recent insights from the psychology literature suggest that these strategies are not only ineffective, but they may also backfire. An alternative strategy of portraying the world as more predictable and controllable has been suggested instead to get people to be more pro-environmental. However, there is no empirical data to support these claims. Therefore, in the current proposal, I wish to fill this gap by investigating whether communications and messages implying a safe and predictable world are more effective than those implying a dangerous and unpredictable world in motivating a specific pro-environmental behavior - recycling. Approvals Check all appropriate approvals required for your proposal. Approvals must be obtained prior to receipt of funding. If you have applied for approval but have not yet received it, indicate that below. IRB Yes No NA Application pending Other Yes No NA Application pending Specify: Checklist The proposal is 1000 words or less excluding budget, biographies, references and citations. The proposal includes a work plan with a specific timeline using months or quarters to identify work to be done and completion dates. The proposal includes a 1-2 paragraph biography of the applicant and all co-investigators. The budget form is complete including the funds sought for this project, other pending applications for this project, and the amount/source of matching or other funds. The applicant s faculty advisor is copied on the application . Professional students w/o advisors check NA. All necessary approvals are pending or received.

2 Project Proposal Title: Facilitating pro-environmental behaviors: A life history theory perspective on better communication strategies By: Chiraag Mittal Faculty Advisor: Dr. Vladas Griskevicius Introduction and Research Question Millions of dollars are spent every year to persuade people to live a sustainable and green lifestyle. Much of this money is spent on better communicating the ill-effects of various unsustainable behaviors and the benefits of pro-environmental initiatives. However, designing and communicating these messages is not an easy task. For example, which of the following two strategies do you think would be more effective at getting people to recycle more telling them that the world is dangerous and uncertain OR telling them that the world is predictable? Most appeals do the former (Witte and Allen, 2000). But there are reasons to believe that this approach is not only ineffective, it may actually backfire. Research shows that cues of a dangerous and uncertain world lead some people become more impulsive, risk-taking and present-biased (Ellis et al., 2011; Griskevicius et al., 2011; Griskevicius et al., 2013). That is, they become even less likely to forego immediate gratification in order to build a better future. Because supporting environmental sustainability often requires delaying gratification and being more future-focused (Arbuthnott, 2010), there is reason to believe that cues implying an unpredictable world may backfire in such contexts. An alternative strategy of portraying the world as more predictable and controllable has been suggested instead (Ellis et al., 2011; Griskevicius et al., 2012). Thus, the question I am interested in studying is - do messages with cues to environmental stability and predictability more effective at driving people s recycling behaviors than do messages with cues to danger and uncertainty? Theoretical framework Emerging research from evolutionary theorists suggests that the extent to which people weigh the present versus the future is linked to life history theory (Kaplan and Gangestaad, 2005). According to life history theory, individual differences in being present or future-focused depend more on the environment people grew up in rather than the environment they are

3 currently live in. People growing up in environments that are dangerous and unpredictable, tend to value the present more and discount the future (Ellis et al., 2009). This means that in environments perceived as unpredictable or dangerous, people tend to become impulsive in their decision-making and care less about events in the distant future. An important implication of this work is that it may be a mistake to emphasize the unpredictability of the environment when trying to persuade people to care more about the environment and the future. For example, asking people to conserve natural resources for the future because no one can predict when we might run out may lead most people to do the opposite of the desired response, causing them to engage in behavior for short-term payoffs (Griskevicius, et al. 2012). Instead, a life history framework suggests that long-term payoffs would be valued when the environment is perceived as more stable and predictable (Ellis et al., 2011; Griskevicius et al., 2012). Thus, framing the environment as safe and predictable may be a better strategy while persuading people to do engage in future-focused pro-environmental behaviors such as recycling. Current Proposal In the current proposal, I wish to study whether communications and messages implying a safe and predictable world are more effective in motivating recycling behaviors than those implying a dangerous and unpredictable world. Experimental research has been extremely effective at testing people s responses to different types of communications and persuasive messages. Continuing with this methodology, I wish to conduct a series of online as well as lab experiments to measure people s attitudes and actual behaviors towards recycling of various products such as paper and plastic under different types of environmental cues predictable vs. unpredictable. Some of the online studies will be used for pilot testing the stimuli that will be subsequently used in the lab. In a typical experiment, about 150 participants will be randomly assigned to either a control condition or to two different treatment conditions (high vs. low environmental predictability). In the Control condition, participants will be exposed to basic messages and ads created to promote certain behaviors (e.g., Recycle plastic ). In the high predictability treatment condition, the reasoning will emphasize the predictable and controllable nature of the world (e.g.,

4 Recycle plastic. Lead our planet to a certain future ). In the low predictability condition, the reasoning will emphasize the unpredictable nature of the world (e.g. Recycle. Our planet is facing an uncertain future ). Subsequently, participants attitudes towards these messages and behaviors will be measured along with a battery of questions pertaining to their childhood and personality. For the lab experiments, I plan to study actual recycling behaviors by creating scenarios where people will be encouraged to recycle everyday products such as paper and plastic bottles. Based on the logic delineated above, I predict that the high predictability messages will be more persuasive than the low predictability ones, which might even backfire. I propose to use Amazon s MTurk online participant pool (mturk.amazon.com) and the paid subject pool at Carlson School of Management (CSOM) as my experimental population. Online studies through MTurk are becoming a popular tool as they enable researchers to collect a large amount of data quickly, efficiently and from a more diverse population. Additionally, the CSOM Subject Pool consists of a database of individuals who have previously agreed to participate in lab studies and includes people from the University as well as the local community. The lab experiments will provide a more controlled environment for measuring and observing actual behaviors. The findings of this project would shed light on the need to consider the framing of sustainability messages and would recommend ways to create more persuasive messages that portray the world as more structured and predictable rather than random and uncontrollable. Interdisciplinary Contribution In this study, I bring together very diverse literatures from several areas of psychology including consumer, social, developmental, personality, and evolutionary, to inform public policy. I believe that this interdisciplinary spirit will promote greater understanding of the effectiveness of pro-environmental communications and guide research in the direction of creating policies and interventions with a greater impact. Furthermore, I hope to have wide exposure to the findings by presenting them at multiple conference venues which attract academics and policy makers including Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Association for Consumer Research and Society of Personality and Social Psychology.

5 Timeline Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Complete IRB Requirements X Experimental stimulus preparation X X Data collection X X X Data Analyses X Abstract submission X Writing reports and publications X X X Result presented at the Society for Personality and Social X Psychology Finalize reports and publications References Arbuthnott, K. D. (2010). Taking the Long View: Environmental Sustainability and Delay of Gratification. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 10(1), Ellis, B. J., Figueredo, A. J., Brumbach, B. H., & Schlomer, G. L. (2009). Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk. Human Nature, 20(2), doi: /s Ellis, B. J., Del Giudice, M., Dishion, T. J., Figueredo, A. J., Gray, P., Griskevicius, V.,... Wilson, D. S. (2012). The evolutionary basis of risky adolescent behavior: Implications for science, policy and practice. Developmental Psychology, 48, Griskevicius, V., Cantu, S., and van Vugt, M. (2012). Evolutionary basis for sustainable behaviours. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 31, Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Delton, A. W., & Robertson, T. E. (2011). The influence of mortality and socioeconomic status on risk and delayed rewards: A life history theory approach. Journal of personality and social psychology, 100(6), doi: /a Griskevicius, V., Ackerman, J, A., Cantu, S. M., Delton, A. W., Robertson, T. E., Simpson, J.A., Emery Thompson, M., & Tybur, J. M. (2013). When the economy falters do people spend or save? Responses to resource scarcity depend on childhood environment. Psychological Science.

6 Kaplan, Hillard S. and Steven W. Gangestad (2005), Life History and Evolutionary Psychology, in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, David M. Buss, ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Witte, K., & Allen, M. (2000). A meta-analysis of fear appeals: implications for effective public health campaigns. Health education & behavior: the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education, 27(5), Biographies Chiraag Mittal is a PhD student in the Marketing department at Carlson School of Management. He holds a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Ohio State University, and a M.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences from University of Arizona. His research interests are deeply embedded in the integration of biological bases of human behaviors into the mainstream consumer and social psychology work. His goal is to broaden the understanding of the development and causes of risky and impulsive behaviors pertaining to financial and proenvironmental decisions. Vladas Griskevicius is the McKnight Associate Professor of Marketing and Psychology. He studies how our evolutionary tendencies influence modern consumer behavior and decision making. Griskevicius has published over 40 articles in top business and psychology journals examining sustainability, green marketing, motivation, emotion, social influence, social norms, and conspicuous consumption. Griskevicius has received numerous awards for his teaching and research, including the Best Article Award from the Journal of Consumer Research, being named Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute, Best Paper Award from the Society for Consumer Psychology, the SAGE Scholar Early Career Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, and multiple awards from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society. He also recently received the Best Teacher Award at the Carlson School of Management and two major grants from the National Science Foundation. His research is regularly featured in the media, including the Discovery Channel, the Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC News, FOX News, CNN, and TIME magazine.

7 Budget Project Title: Facilitating pro-environmental behaviors: A life history theory perspective on better communication strategies Instructions: Provide justification along with costs. Requested funding Matching/other funding Category Description & justification Amount Amount Source 1 Your stipend 2 Research Subjects Payment to experiment participants (300 X $10 for a session) Payment to Amazon MTurk participants (1000 X $1) 3 Speaker honoraria speakers x $ honorarium 4 Supplies & Services $4,000 5 Equipment 6 Travel to 2013 Society of Personality and Social Psychology Conference at Austin, TX. Flight - $400; Early conference registration and student membership based on 2013 amount - $195; Hotel: 4 nights on a shared basis - $400; Per diem for Austin, TX $71*4 - $284 $1,279 Subtotal research expenses (2-6) $5,279 $0 TOTAL BUDGET $5,279 $0