1) (Marcell, Agyeman and Rappaport, 2004)
| A community-based social marketing (CBSM) campaign to reduce student electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions was undertaken at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Social marketing methods follow a commercial marketing model and involve market research into the planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and evaluation of methods designed to encourage a desired behavior change rather than a product. Two upper-class suite-style dorms were used in the study. Residents of the control dormitory were exposed to an educational program on climate change detailing how their electricity and computer use creates greenhouse gas emissions. Residents of the experimental dorm were exposed to the same educational program as well as a social marketing campaign encouraging students to turn personal computers off when not in use. Before and after surveys suggested that the social marketing campaign had a greater impact on student environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors than the educational program alone. |
Social Science: communication
Marcell, K., Agyeman, J., & Rappaport, A. (2004). Cooling the campus: Experiences from a pilot study to reduce electricity use at Tufts University, USA, using social marketing methods. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 5(2), 169–189. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/docview/205022459?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14667
2) Wolske, K. S. (2011)
Encouraging climate-friendly behaviors through a community energy challenge: The effects of information, feedback, and shared stories. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Social Science: communication
Wolske, K. (2009). Ann Arbor Energy Challenge. City of Ann Arbor. Retrieved from file:///Users/Harold_Rice/Downloads/wolske%202009.pdf
3) Zint, M. & K. Wolske (2014).
Against a backdrop of unprecedented levels of urbanization, 21st century cities across the globe share concerns for the challenges they face. This Companion provides a framework for understanding the city as a critical building block for a more sustainable future within broader subnational, national and continental contexts, and ultimately, within a global systems context. It discusses the sustainable strategies being devised, as well as the methods and tools for achieving them. Examples of social, economic, political and environmental sustainable policy strategies are presented and the extent to which they actually increase sustainability is analyzed
Social Science: communication
Zint, M., & Wolske, K. S. (2014). Elgar Companion to Sustainable Cities: Strategies, Methods, and Outlook. In Elgar Companion to Sustainable Cities: Strategies, Methods, and Outlook.
4) (Miller and Prentice, 2016)
Providing people with information about the behavior and attitudes of their peers is a strategy commonly employed by those seeking to reduce behavior deemed harmful either to individuals (e.g., high alcohol consumption) or the collective (e.g., high energy consumption). We review norm-based interventions, detailing the logic behind them and the various forms they can take. We give special attention to interventions designed to decrease college students' drinking and increase environment-friendly behaviors. We identify the conditions under which norm information has the highest likelihood of changing the targeted behavior and discuss why this is the case.
Social Science: psychology
Miller, D., & Prentice, D. (2016). Changing Norms to Change Behavior. ANNUAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY, 67(1), 339 – 361. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015013
5) (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011)
The author, Doug McKenzie Mohr, describes past research on various environmental issues, in order to present a model for addressing social change regarding environmental impact, largely at the community level. McKenzie-Mohr synthesizes research from a variety of studies aimed at promoting pro-environmental behaviors. He draws from studies on many different conservation issues including energy use and waste reduction, and examines the effectiveness of many methods of promoting desired behavioral changes. He first acknowledges that traditional methods such as the “economic self-interest approach” and “information campaigns” have largely been unsuccessful. He then, from a synthesis of studies, identifies a conceptual method for addressing and initiating pro-environmental behavior changes, referred to as Community-Based Social Marketing. He states the suggested method as a five phase process: 1 - selecting behaviors, 2 - identifying barriers and benefits, 3 - developing strategies, 4 - piloting, and 5 - broad-scale implementation and evaluation. We recommend that this method be applied to our campus sustainability initiative.
Social Science: psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics
McKenzie-Mohr, D. (2011). Fostering Sustainable Behavior. In Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social marketing(pp. 1–10). New Society Publishers. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/umich/detail.action?docID=10464346
6)(Katzev, 1986)
Social Science: psychology
7) (Goldstein, Cialdini and Griskevicius, 2008)
Two field experiments examined the effectiveness of signs requesting hotel guests' participation in an environmental conservation program. Appeals employing descriptive norms (e.g., “the majority of guests reuse their towels”) proved superior to a traditional appeal widely used by hotels that focused solely on environmental protection. Moreover, normative appeals were most effective when describing group behavior that occurred in the setting that most closely matched individuals' immediate situational circumstances (e.g., “the majority of guests in this room reuse their towels”), which we refer to as provincial norms. Theoretical and practical implications for managing proenvironmental efforts are discussed. Until recently, the greatest towel-related dilemma travelers faced was reflected in the old joke told by the nightclub comic, Henny Youngman, about the hotel where he had stayed the previous night:“What a hotel: the towels were so big and fluffy that I could hardly close my suitcase.” In recent years, however, the question of whether or not to remove hotel towels has been supplanted by the question of whether or not to reuse hotel towels during the course of one's stay. With the adoption of environmental programs by hotels, more and more travelers are finding themselves urged to reuse their towels to help conserve environmental resources by saving energy and reducing the amount of detergent-related pollutants released into the environment. In most cases, the appeal comes in the form of a strategically placed card in the hotels' washrooms. In addition to the inherent benefit to the environment and to society, such programs are used by an increasing number of hotel chains because of the considerable economic benefits of enacting them. Besides the direct savings on costs such as labor, water, energy, and detergent, there is a burgeoning segment of consumers who reward businesses that address environmental concerns through their business practices (Carlson, Grove, and Kangun 1993; Menon and Menon 1997). With a nearly limitless array of angles to play and motivational strings to pull, how have marketing practitioners chosen to encourage hotel guests to participate in these environmentally and economically beneficial programs? Considering the finding that over three-quarters of Americans think of themselves as environmentalists (Mackoy, Calantone, and Droge 1995), it is not surprising that tacticians overwhelmingly have tended to focus on the importance of such programs for the protection of the environment. Guests are almost invariably informed that reusing one's towels will conserve natural resources and help save the environment from further depletion, disruption, and corruption. Notable in its complete absence from these surveyed persuasive appeals was one based on a potentially powerful motivator of prosocial behavior: social norms. When consumers learn that seven out of 10 people choose one brand of automobile over another, that teeth-whitening toothpaste has become more popular than its less functional counterpart, and that nearly everyone at the local cafeteria steers clear of the “spamburger surprise” entrée, they are getting information about social norms. Specifically, they are getting information about descriptive norms, which refer to how most people behave in a situation. Descriptive norms motivate both private and public actions by informing individuals of what is likely to be effective or adaptive behavior in that situation (Cialdini, Kallgren, and Reno 1991). A wide variety of research shows that the 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 (Griskevicius et al. 2006; Hochbaum 1954; Park and Lessig 1977; Shapiro and Neuberg, forthcoming).
Social Science: psychologyGoldstein, N. J., Cialdini, R. B., & Vladus, G. (2008). A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(3), 472–482. https://doi.org/: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/586910
8)(Nyer and Dellande, 2010)
Many long-term services, e.g., weight-loss programs, require that customers comply with instructions, provide the inputs, and thus co-create a major portion of the service. This article investigates the role of public commitment in influencing motivation and behavior in a weight-loss setting. The role of susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) is also examined. The publicness with which a commitment to weight loss is made has a significant and favorable impact on long-term weight-loss compliance behavior. Short- and long-term public commitment resulted in higher levels of weight-loss motivation and higher levels of weight loss. Weight-loss motivation partly mediates the effect of public commitment on weight loss, while SNI moderates the effect of public commitment on weight loss. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Social Science: psychology
Nyer, P. U., & Dellande, S. (2010). Public commitment as a motivator for weight loss. Psychology and Marketing, 27(1), 1 – 12. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20316