27 cork co co

Changing Behaviour Workshop Tuesday 18th September, 11:45-16:30

Cork County Hall

Dr. Vincent Carragher

Behaviour; Models

Measurement; Surveys

Driving LCB; Campaign Efficiency

Effective Communication

Research Background

Ecological footprint (EF) measures direct and indirect energy use, resource depletion and emissions associated with our lifestyles.Developed an EF method for Irish communities. Measured 88 community EFsWorked with a Tipperary community for 5 years.

– Reduced its emissions by 28%– Equates to 4,900t CO2

– Validated by ISO 14064– PDD issued for verification– Cosain– www.ul.ie/lowcarbonfutures

EnergyWasteTransportFoodWaterBuilt Land

http://www.ul.ie/lowcarbonfutures

Plan

Low Carbon Behaviour

Measurement

Actors and Drivers

Communication

Vast Array of Communities

SpatialPopulationPhysicalFunctionalResidentialOfficeFactory FloorSchoolUniversity

A group of people

connected through common interest

Explaining human behaviour, and potential intervention, is complex. Such enquiry within the literature, is actuated from diverse perspectives, ranging from concern with physiological or even psychological processes at one extreme to concentration on social institutions at the other (Ajzen, 1991). Authors have developed their models to explain types of human behaviour encountered and it is for this reason that countless models exist. Within this review, elements of models which help explain LCB will be discussed. Linear internalized behavioural models and externalized behavioural models capable of incorporating a multitude of factors will be discussed.

Behaviour

Behaviour

Information-Action Model:

Information

Awareness

Pro-environmental Attitudes

Low Carbon Behaviour

Intention

Attitude Action Gap

Behaviour

An early practical demonstration of this was revealed by Bickman in which subjects were interviewed (N=500), prior to surveillance, and virtually all (94%) indicated that individuals have a responsibility for picking up litter. Subsequently, however, just 2% demonstrated their belief by picking up the litter that had been “planted” by the researchers accomplice (Bickman, 1974).

Behaviour

A myriad of such examples clearly demonstrate that though we declare pro-environmental values or attitudes, this does not necessarily translate into relevant behaviour. Factors that bridge the attitude-action gap are:

1. intention,2. situational factors,3. ascription of responsibility,4. value orientations,5. habit and emotion, and6. subjective norms.

Behaviour

IntentionIntentions are indications of how hard people are willing to try, in order to perform a particular behaviour.Theory of Reasoned Action model, by Fishbein-Ajzen, posits that intention to act is the immediate antecedent and key determinant of behaviour. This model also proposes that beliefs about, and evaluations of, outcome lead to an attitude towards the given behaviour, and this attitude towards the behaviour is one of two main influences on people’s intention to act in the given way.

Behaviour

Theory of Reasoned Action (adapted from Kolmus & Agyeman, 2002)

Behaviour

A second major influence on intention is a person’s subjective norm. The subjective norm is an individual belief about what other people (who are important to the actor) think of the specific behaviour. This is to be distinguished from a personal norm which is the individual’s personal belief about the given behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). This is the first individualistic model to include the influence of other people around the actor, and in that sense moves closer to approximating the complexity of behaviour in a community or social setting.

Behaviour

The Theory of Planned Behaviour is an adaptation of TRA and includes a new variable known as Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC) as an additional indicator of both intention and action. PBC is defined as the person’s belief as to how easy or difficult performance of the behaviour is likely to be. Includes external factors such as availability of essential infrastructure, opportunities and resources (situational). This model argues that collectively, these factors represent the actor’s actual level of control over the behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). TPB has been used frequently to explore ERB and is capable of incorporating moral antecedents of behaviour (Jackson, 2005).

Behaviour

Theory of Planned Behaviour

Behaviour

The presence or absence of situational factors can predict and explain the attitude-behaviour gap. Authors have adapted TRA and TPB and developed basic derivative models from the perspective of ERB shown next. In this adaptation, environmental values have been placed at the heart of factors shaping intention while situational and psychological factors also impact on the relationship between intention and behaviour (Barr and Gilg, 2005).

Behaviour

Situational Factors

Conceptualisation of ERB (Barr et al, 2005)

Behaviour

Ascription of Responsibility:

Strong evidence has been found for the importance of a sense of responsibility in predicting ERB. This suggests that those who feel a responsibility to contribute to the community in general, and specifically sustainability, are more likely to report ERB (Cotter, 2007). In 1977, Schwartz developed the Norm-Activation Theory which proposes that moral behaviours are the result of a personal norm to act in a particular way (Stern et al, 1999).

Behaviour

Norm-Activation Theory

Behaviour

Value Orientations:Stern and Dietz (in Moser & Dilling, 2007) suggest there

are three distinct value orientations which provide the basis for an individual creating their own belief system. The Ecological Value Model (EVM) proposes that ERB emerges from an individual dependant on the levels of these value orientations (Jackson, 2005):

1. egoist value orientation; individuals appreciate the environment for what they can get out of it,

2. social altruist orientation; individuals who want to preserve the environment for others’, and finally

3. biospheric value orientation; individuals concerned about the biosphere for its own sake.

Behaviour

It posits that those who hold primarily self-interested or egoistic values are less likely to engage in ERB than those who hold values expressing less self interest (social and/or biospheric).

In 1978, Dunlap and Van developed the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and focused on a set of core values which pay increased respect to natural limits and the importance of preserving the balance and integrity of nature (Dunlap et al, 2000).

Behaviour

Stern’s Value-Belief-Norm suggests: 1. a chain of impact stretching from the EVM value

sets through to beliefs and the emergence of a personal norm and that

2. acceptance of the NEP precedes awareness of consequences which in turn precedes ascription of responsibility (Stern et al, 1999).

Tribbia posits that these different value orientations form early in a person’s life and deeply affect a person’s belief system and attitudes toward LCB (in Moser & Dilling, 2007). This early value orientation suggests that early environmental education is essential to LCB.

Behaviour

Stern’s Value-Belief-Norm Model

Behaviour

Triandis developed a Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour and similar to the TRA, TIB includes both expectancy-value and normative belief considerations and posits that while behaviour is influenced by rational deliberation and social factors, habits and emotions also play their part.

In the next slide you will see that TIB was the first theory, reviewed here, which includes the influence of habitual, social and emotive factors on behaviour (Darnton, 2008).

Behaviour

Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour Schematic

Behaviour

Imagine that you have agreed to participate in an experiment on upon arriving for the study, you are asked to take your place at a table at which five other participants are seated, you are fourth in the group of 5.

And then I ask “which line is the same length as X?”

And you say?

Subjective Norms

Normative = group pressure

Behaviour

Imagine that you have agreed to participate in an experiment on upon arriving for the study, you are asked to take your place at a table at which five other participants are seated.


And you say? B

Subjective NormsNormative = group pressure

Behaviour

Imagine that you have agreed to participate in an experiment on upon arriving for the study, you are asked to take your place at a table at which five other participants are seated.


And you say? 99%

Subjective NormsNormative = group pressure

Behaviour

Same again but this time one by one the first three participants in your group of 5 answer C.

How many of you would say C?

Behaviour

Same again but this time one by one the first three participants in your group of 5 answer C.

How many of you would say C?75%

Behaviour

Asch's wrote the fact that “reasonably intelligent and wellmeaning … people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern".

If we are to make the transition to a sustainable future and increase the efficiency of campaigns to impact on LCB it is essential to support integration of drivers like societal norms. Personal norms and ascription of responsibility are also extremely significant.

Behaviour

Similarly in the decision making process of a deliberating jury, each juror, from their own recollection of the evidence & the jury instructions, has some private information (personal norm) but they also pay attention to established subjective norms. The first juror makes their public verdict. The second juror’s decision is more complex as they possess extra information which the first juror did not; a subjective norm. In this way an information cascade occurs & if the first few jurors coincide it may become optimal for each of the subsequent individuals to ignore their personal norm & adopt the group direction. The cascade can naturally reach a tipping point at which they rationally disregard their personal norm (Raafat, 2009).

Cialdini and his colleagues placed flyers on every car windshield in a library parking lot. Subsequently, on return to their cars, the participants were given the opportunity to scatter (the flyer) into either a previously clean, or a fully littered environment, after first witnessing a confederate who either dropped trash into the environment or simply walked and passed by (Cialdini, 2003). As can be seen from the following Figure there was more littering in the littered environment than in the clean environment and the most littering occurred when participants observed a model drop trash into a littered environment.

Behaviour

Behaviour

Interestingly the least littering occurred when participants saw a model drop trash into a clean environment (Cialdini, 2003).

Littering and descriptive norms

Behaviour

Cialdini defines two types of subjective norms:

1. a descriptive norm (what most people do, it carries little moral weight & simply refers to the perception we hold about what is normal in a given situation) &

2. the injunctive norm (reflecting the moral rules & guidelines of the social group) (Cialdini, 2003).

For example, there is clearly an injunctive norm established while driving through speeding restrictions, fines, penalties, & public disapproval. It operates in such a way as to motivate people to stay within the speed limit, even as the descriptive norm often operates in such a way to encourage people to exceed it (Jackson, 2005).

Behaviour

Signs were placed in hotel rooms which possessed different messages but which all asked the customers to reuse towels if they were staying for more than one night. A descriptive norm message relays and informs the subject on the choices other people make and how they behave. The descriptive norm message yielded a significantly higher towel reuse rate (44.1%) than the environmental protection message (35.1%; N=433), which is the industry standard (Goldstein et al, 2008). Goldstein evaluated the potency of a variety of descriptive normative messages by placing these messages in hotel bedrooms and examining towel reuse rates.

Behaviour

The same room identity descriptive norm condition yielded a significantly higher towel reuse rate (49.3%) than the other three descriptive norm conditions combined (42.8%; N=1,318), and individually the citizen identity descriptive norm (43.5%), the gender identity descriptive norm (40.9%), and the guest identity descriptive norm (44.0%) (Goldstein et al, 2008). Basically, participants were more likely to follow the descriptive norms of a group of individuals with whom they shared the same setting than the norms of groups sharing the social identities that were tested.

Behaviour

So far:•Internalistic models

•Subjective Norms•Personal Norms

•Externalistic models

Behaviour

Real results are a rich and subtle interplay of interactions, leading to outcomes which are impossible to predict without considering the dynamic of the group as a whole, Ball, 2005

Social Physics lends us the concept of the l’homme moyen which masks variation in behaviours related to consumption

In a system the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, systems level LCB

versus individual level LCBExperimentology versus Reductionism

Behaviour

Behaviour

The richness of interconnections means that any one change has several prior causes and itself may contribute to

further changes in these causes. It is precisely in these circumstances that a holistic or systems approach is

essential, because the components cannot sensibly be separated, as the reductionist approach assumes. It also means that the behaviour of the system is determined

more by its own internal structure than by specific external causes. Furthermore, its own internal structure will have evolved as a result of its particular history, including its

previous adaptations to changes in its environment, Chapman 2004.

Group Behaviour

Convergent Social Behaviour is easily studied in invertebrates as observation of entire communities is more practical at this scale

Group Behaviour

Group Behaviour

A colony of 10,000 ants restricted to minimal communication tools & nominal cognitive skills collectively engage in nuanced improvisational problem solving. Ant individuals are unable to assess the global situation yet still work together in a coordinated way by effectively thinking locally acting locally (Johnson, 2001 & Collins et al, 2004). Vertebrate groups such as herds, flocks, schools, or even human crowds are different as the interactions among the individuals are more complex. In invertebrates the manipulative experiments required to understand the underlying mechanisms are easier to perform and replicate. (Couzin & Krause, 2003). They underline the importance of interaction and communication.

Group Behaviour

Group Behaviour

Mehrabian rated human communicative impact as being 7% verbal, 38% tone of voice and 55% facial expression and body language illustrating the sheer importance of non-verbal communication, sub-conscious cues. Normative considerations already mentioned defined how what others say, feel or do impacts on our behaviour. Research underscores how poorly defined visual and sensory cues act on our impressions and impact on behaviour in unconscious ways. In this context communication mechanisms, as drivers, are thought to vary and some of the more significant pathways are reviewed elsewhere (Raafat, 2009 and Johnson, 2001). Verbal and chiefly non-verbal communication mechanisms affect LCB.

Group Behaviour

Ball (2004) encapsulates the extension of CSB to human behaviour when he states that by concerning ourselves with nothing more than how we interact with our immediate neighbours, and thus by “thinking locally”, we collectively acquire a coherent, global influence. Herd behaviour is an influential and well-documented feature of human behaviour in a number of realms (Raafat et al, 2009):1. stock market bubbles and financial speculation,2. political choice and voting,3. street demonstrations,4. sporting events,5. consumer preferences and fashions, and6. mass hysteria.

Group Behaviour

Spill Over Behaviour

Thogersen found that when subjects separated and recycled domestic waste this tended to spill over and lead to more environmentally friendly choices while shopping (Thogersen, 1999). Purchase related and habit type behaviour as being contingent (Barr et al, 2005). Uitdenbogerd et al, found that their review of domestic energy conservation shows householders prefer to adopt a variety of habit and/or purchase related LCBs which can reduce energy consumption (Uitdenbogerd et al, 2009). Essentially adoption of one LCB tends to spill over and leads to LCB choices in different situations.

Behaviour Summary

To drive LCB you must:Activate Subjective Norms – visible

conformity Case Studies rewards and competitions

Activate Personal Norms through measurement and ascription

Communication – local level interaction conscious unconscious dimensions

Activate Spill Over Behaviour – conservation of more than energyImpact PBC and agency

We need to understand the context to LCB, barriers, situational factors, etc - surveys useful

Concluding Behaviour

Behaviour

Illustration of anticipated consequences and PBC

Behaviour

Normative considerations broadcast within material

Measurement & Basic Surveying

Measurement: Basic Surveying

Types of survey;•Telephone interview - costs•Face to face interview – time consuming, lack of anonymity•Self completion

•Mailed; postal districts, costs•Self distribution; personal contact, ownership, anonymity, resource efficient

Essential for self-completion to have cover letter; personal detail, photo, purpose of study, anonymity


Survey buy-in: 1. Survey is a measurement device and usually part of

a larger project on a study group. Careful selection of this group such that they possess synergy with your project aims will help recovery rates.

2. Profiling the group is useful; CSO, FRCs, local library, surveillance, interview, HR....

3. Meetings can generate engagement and ownership4. Pilot Survey – customisation5. Survey process, inclusion6. Guides (CSO) and other survey groups; no need to

reinvent the wheel http://www.energyxchange.eu/en/index.php


Surveys pointers:•Reduce deliberation time; good logical flow start with intro•Easy to understand and to complete•Customised to suit the study group•General or classification questions (end of survey?)


A vertical format distinguishes the question from the response categories and helps ensure ease of completion and produces fewer mistakes (Bourque & Fielder, 1995). The response category should be as long and inclusive as possible. Multiple answers were also catered for and other categories and comment boxes were included (Bourque & Fielder, 1995).


The use of “other boxes” was designed to reduce irritation amongst respondents when using closed questions (Oppenheim, 2000).

In unbalanced questions the wording of a question can influence the answer. Focus on balanced questions reduces bias.Also if questions are to be valid and reliable it is important that they are as specific as possible. If questions are vague respondents will interpret them in their own way – customisation and pilots.The initial questions in a questionnaire should be easy, enjoyable and not too taxing to complete. This is particularly important with a self-completion questionnaire where difficulty in answering some questions is a major reason for non-completion (Saunders, 2007).



Take great care not to lead respondents towards a particular answer (de Vaus, 1990; McNeill, 1990).


Questions should be easily answered and go from easier to more difficult (de Vaus, 1996).

Set a time frame for behaviour questions (last 12 months)

Good division and separation between sections and pages

Open questions are unavoidable but the majority of questions should be closed. Advantages of using such questions are:

•simplification of the questionnaire, •reduction of the risk of accumulating useless data (Fowler, 1988a), and•the ease of data retrieval (Bourque & Fielder, 1995).

Buy-in:Finally, at the end of the questionnaire respondents can be invited to comment on its content, and to make any additional comments with an expression of gratitude for completion at the end (Bourque & Fielder, 1995).



Face to face surveys 69% RR

Mailed surveys 23-34% RR with personal contact increased 39%

The following factors have been found to increase response rates (Oppenheim, 2000):

•advance warning and inviting participation•provision of information and engendering trust•explanation of sections where necessary and explanation of why the respondent is being surveyed•assurance of confidentiality and anonymity, and•the use of cover letters.

Driving LCB and Campaign Efficiency

Driving or Facilitating LCB

Examples applied to communities ?


Campaign Efficiency Engagement


Public Disaffection

“Mistrust ……… has spread across all areas of life…... Citizens, it is said, no longer trust governments, or politicians, or ministers, or the police, or the courts, or the prison service….None of us, it is said, trusts banks, or insurers, or pension providers. Patients, it is said, no longer trust doctors, and in particular no longer trust hospitals or hospital consultants” (O’Neill, 2002). This cynicism affects public attitudes and actions of the government, including those which drive sustainable development, are viewed with scepticism. Mistrust for the idea that sustainability would be achieved through government and business initiatives (Macnaghten and Jacobs (1997) allows such disaffection to potentially acts as a LCD.

Participation and Social Capital

Decide-Announce-DefendApproach

Public=Owns-Project

Approach

Human Impact and Pressure

Disconnect Between Consumption and its Impacts

Normative Considerations

Despite our best efforts at independence and individuality, we learn by example, and model our behaviours on those we see around us (Jackson, 2005). “Social Learning Theory holds that people change by aligning their behaviour to that of their role models ………. Social Learning Theory is helpful because it can help us understand why some ideas and practices spread exponentially with virtually no promotional activity on the part of government or institutions…” (Collins et al, 2004).

Infrastructure

In research performed in the UK, respondents were much more likely to recycle if they had access to a structured kerbside recycling scheme (Barr et al, 2003). Similarly in Galway, Fahy (2005) discovered that the presence of facilities was a reason for action while their lack was a reason for inaction. If infrastructure is provided people become habitually bound to a behaviour experiencing “lock-in” (Darnton, 2004). Cycle laneways, bicycle racks, composters, public transport, gas pipeline, abundant wood-fuel sources etc.

Information and Dialogue

In CER found that participants had little understanding of terminology such as “sustainable development” (O’Regan & Moles, 2004). Satterfield et al (2000) advocates use of the narrative technique due to its capacity for engaging participants & its ability to render technical information understandable. Provide language that is familiar & not overly theoretical or scientific is a major challenge (Amajirionwu et al, 2004). Information that informs, not just instructs, enabling public to participate in considered decision-making. In this way citizens are engaged in LCB, establishing new knowledge based on an appropriation, re-interpretation and further development of existing expertise (Georg, 1999).

Indicators and Feedback

Indicators are selections of information which “summarise or typify characteristics of complex systems” and as a result may be used to identify the trends within a system (O’ Regan and Moles, 2004). Sustainability indicators are useful for (Reed et al, 2006):

•measuring progress,•identifying problems,•setting sustainable goals and targets, and•identifying suitable management strategies.

Individuals identify themselves with an action or behaviour through positive feedback or recognition, by association (Barr, 2004).

Commitment

“When individuals agree to a small request, it often alters the way they perceive themselves. That is, when individuals sign a petition favouring the building of a new facility for the handicapped, the act of signing subtly alters their attitudes on the topic. In short, they come to view themselves as the type of person who supports initiatives for the handicapped. When asked later to comply with the larger request, giving a donation, there is strong internal pressure to behave consistently” (McKenzie-Mohr, 1999).

Incentivisation

Incentives can take various forms: direct financial gain, cost saving, accreditation and social approval. Training, prizes and competitions.

Cost saving incentivisation significant in a DEFRA survey in the UK 81% of respondents reported that they saved energy at home in order to save money, while just 15% did so to help the environment or reduce pollution (DEFRA, 2001, p27). Evidence that such a reaction is on the decline - Economic Self-Interest Approach or Model. The ratio of respondents expressing motivations which favour saving money over protecting the environment maybe on the decrease (Thornton, 2009).

Compliance

In compliance, individuals alter their behaviour for various reasons:

•to receive a reward,•to provoke a favourable reaction from others,•or to avoid being punished.

The change in behaviour occurs because there is a tangible consequence for not doing the behaviour in the participant’s mind, for exaample bottle deposits, user fees for waste disposal, energy utility grants provision and the plastic bag tax. The LCB tends to be elastic, as once the rewards and punishments are removed, the gains made by using compliance are often diminished (McKenzie-Mohr, 1999).

Effective Campaigns, mixture of 30 factors and more.....


Two topics here; (i) Message Framing and (ii) Communication Channels. The framing of a message is a critical factor in:

•raising awareness,•enabling knowledge, and •translating awareness into LCB change.

Essentially, the content of the message needs to be specific to the issue, and the context, as well as the needs and characteristics of different consumer segments (Ipsos MORI, 2007). Message framing is subdivided into two phases and they are identifying context and effective messaging.

Message Framing; context

No Contextual Factors No Contextual Factors

1 Places 4 Varied beliefs

2 Demographics 5 Various repertoires

3 Potential benefits 6 Identify and target barriers

Message Framing

Benefits of LCB are often intangible, for example recycling household waste, no obvious personal benefit. Benefit occurs at the collective level (Collins et al, 2004) & most people fail to recognize that their individual actions make a difference at this level (Collins, 2004). Need to broadcast the following benefits: practical, financial, health, local improvements, jobs, household or self improvements.

“Did you know that the highest rates of asthma, lung disease, and respiratory problems are found in those communities where the coal and gas powered plants are located?”

Message Framing

Place: The importance of place has been clearly defined in research as mentioned by Goldstein. He found that participants were more likely to follow the pro-environmental norms of a group of individuals with whom they shared the same setting than the equivalent norms of groups sharing the same social identities (Goldstein et al, 2008). The success of Energy Neighbourhoods was a good example of this principle in action (http://www.energyneighbourhoods.eu/)

http://www.energyneighbourhoods.eu/

Message Framing

Beliefs:“Before you craft the content of your message, and decide when and how you will present it, you need to know the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of your intended audience. The messages that you develop will need to be tailored to the different segments of your community” (McKenzie-Mohr and Smith, 1999).

Can be complex and it costs time?

Message Framing

Audience subsetsDifferent social groups respond differently to behavioural change strategies. For instance, informational campaigns tend to have a greater impact on the behaviour of well-off social groups, who can create their own opportunities for change. Meanwhile, lower social groups may benefit more from a combined approach that offers both an educational element and concrete opportunities for making the change. To counter the notion of message segmentation it has been argued that an enormous range of motivations should be included providing a driver for “almost everyone” (NEF, 2008).

Message Framing

BarriersEach form of LCB has its own set of barriers, and the factors that impede individuals from composting are quite different from those that preclude low carbon transport (McKenzie-Mohr, 2000). Such barriers include changes that need to be made in order for the behaviour to be more convenient as in provision of:

•refuse collection•recycling or organic waste treatment facilities•reliable public transport•bicycle racks and•bus stops.

Message Framing

Guilt provocation alone is detrimental so practical solutions must be provided (McKenzie-Mohr and Smith, 1999) and a sense of empowerment created explaining that these are human caused problems that we can tackle collectively.

Establishing collective action can help people feel that their individual actions are part of something bigger, and that this action is supported by consistent policies and regulation at a national and global level, with governments leading by example (Ipsos MORI, 2007)..

Message Framing

Naysayers: there is a need to treat the climate change debate as having been won. Acknowledging climate change as real and individual LCB as effective is essential (Ereaut and Segnit, 2005). Broadcast the connections between climate change and issues which are perceived as being more salient such as:

•human health,•extreme weather events and•national security implications.

Leiserowitz argues that while the naysayer may argue against climate change they cannot argue in relation to depleting economic, political and military resources (Leiserowitz in Moser and Dilling, 2007).

Message Framing

Preliminary work for any awareness campaign is therefore identification of activity barriers. Such identification should first include review of relevant articles, surveillance, report with subsequent focus groups and finally, surveying the group concerned (McKenzie-Mohr, 2000):

“Since the barriers that prevent individuals from engaging in sustainable behaviour are activity specific, community-based social marketers begin to develop a strategy only after they have identified a particular activity's barriers” (McKenzie-Mohr and Smith, 1999).

Message Framing; Effective Messaging

Having established the context and an understanding of the factors in the last Table campaigns need to cultivate an effective message - make a message “sticky”. No Message Factors No Message Factors

1 Internalising the message 6 Facilitation

2 Induce rivalry 7 Narrative threads

3 Normative messaging 8 Bridging metaphors

4 Modelling 9 Immediacy

5 Local & solution orientated messaging

10 Feedback

Message Framing

Internalisation and facilitation:Campaigns should aim to facilitate and incorporate dialogue with and within communities and the climate debate work package of Energy Neighbourhoods is a good practical example of such dialogue. By doing so Energy Neighbourhoods seeks to stimulate local dialogue and embed it in local policy.

Workshops, events, demonstrations, presence on the ground.

Message Framing

Induce rivalryIn the case of Energy Neighbourhoods the competition strategy has the added bonus of setting a target for the community to reach.

Recommendation of the “Climate Change: From Science to Action” Conference is to: “Create a variety of academic and nonacademic competitions centered on climate change, or harness existing competitions by introducing climate change as a topic” (Abassi, 2006).

Message Framing

Narrative threads:NEF (2008) recommend that the narrative should be inclusive while Burningham and Thrush suggest that familiar language use is necessary, as the language of environmentalism is often “suffused with jargon” that excludes those who are unfamiliar with it (Burningham and Thrush, 2004). Others agree (Collins et al, 2004) and perhaps the sentiments are best encapsulated by the words of Nelson Mandela (UNEP, 2005):

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.

Message Framing

Normative messagingA majority of respondents (92%; N=134) felt that prescriptive messages are more effective than proscriptive messages (Winter et al, 2000).

Descriptive norm messages convey information about other people’s behaviour, injunctive norm messages express information about other people’s approval or disapproval of a behaviour. Participants recycle more frequently, and greater amounts, when they were given feedback which expressed injunctive social norms or descriptive social norms (Bator and Cialdini, 2007)

Message Framing

I

D

∆ 26%∆

Message Framing

D

I

∆ 1.7% to 8%

∆

• Goodall (2007) summarises that stressing the benefits in terms of social approval of taking the “good” action, rather than noting the deleterious effects of “bad” actions, is now a widely understood principle.

• “persuasive communications are likely to have their best effects when communicators align descriptive and injunctive normative messages to work in tandem rather than in competition with one another. It is possible to do so by conveying to recipients that the desired activity is widely performed and roundly approved, whereas the unwanted activity is relatively rare and roundly disapproved” (Cialdini et al, 2006).

Message Framing

Bridging Metaphors

In a society in which 25% of the population do not understand the meaning of percentages, the complexities of energy economics are going to be beyond most people (Goodall, 2007). Energy communications should instead (Ipsos MORI, 2007):

• prioritize key pieces of information that are relevant to the consumer,

• use everyday language or symbols instead of kWh, and

• use pictorial or simple graphical information with clear labeling.

Message Framing

Note the success of the “ozone hole” as a simple and understandable metaphor (Ungar in Moser and Dilling, 2007). Tangible constructs equated to energy consumption need to be utilised in order to make energy information understandable. Consumption metrics need to be first converted into understandable constructs and then communicated, and this makes the message more “vivid” and adds to its persuasive power (Aronson, 2004). Thickening blanket analogy for increasing concentrations of GHG in the atmosphere.

Message Framing

• Energy-efficiency assessors trained to describe the inappropriate ventilation leakage through the walls of residents households. The tangible construct used here was that the cracks, in the walls of the average household, amounted to a hole the size of a football and that removes a lot of heat from the household:

• "Psychologically, a crack is seen as minor, but a hole the size of a football feels disastrous. The fact that they encompass the same area is of interest to an engineer; but in the mind of the average homeowner, the football will loom larger than the cracks under the door” (Gonzales et al, 1988).

Message Framing

• Modelling• Personalized information, model the behaviour we wish

others to adopt, case studies (McKenzie-Mohr and Smith, 1999).

• The power of “real-life” stories, is that they create an arresting message which is hard to ignore (Duffy et al, 2005).

• Personal communication is also extremely effective;

• “Think how you can activate social networks so that your message is delivered by real people” (UNEP, 2005).

Message Framing

Feedback, Recognition and Conformity

Warlop et al (2008) suggests that drawing attention to established ecological behaviour increases what this researcher defines as a behavioural overlap and by doing so improves other people’s attitudes towards ecological behaviour. This in turn potentially impacts on their behaviour, and effectively a pro-behaviour layer of information feeds back into the community and the recognition elicited impacts on self perception.

Message Framing

Reviewing the San Diego experience Pratt and Rabkin (Pratt and Rabkin in Moser and Dilling, 2007) state that stronger feedback messages that applaud current success, but which make clear the need for further concessions and cooperation, are required.

These techniques influence consumer’s self-perception such that someone who perceives themselves as an environmentally friendly consumer is internally motivated to act upon this perception. It is a well-documented fact that internal motivation results in increased performance and persistence of a behaviour (Warlop et al, 2008).

Message Framing

Local and Solution Orientated Messaging

Talking about ways to take local actions to deal with climate change impacts shifts the discourse toward one of empowerment and unification. Communicators have to be more solution oriented, give specific ideas of what to do and how to do it, need to evoke hope and empower people (Moser and Dilling, 2007). Research shows that when participants were given clear information on the suggested behaviour that a significant positive difference in those performing it occurred. This solution orientated message is more persuasive (Gladwell, 2002).

Message Framing

Communication Channels

No Channels No Channels No Channels

1 Guidebooks 11 Awards 21 Advertisements

2 Email 12 Survey reports 22 Blogs

3 Webinars 13 Directories 23 Webcasts

4 Information ‘toolkits’ 14 Web pages 24 Podcast

5 Letters 15 Sermons 25 Competitions

6 Payslip inserts 16 TV and videos 26 Press releases

7 Posters 17 Meetings 27 Newsletters

8 Newspapers 18 Leaflets &booklets 28 Interviews

9 Pester power 19 Workbooks 29 Interactive

10 Navigation service 20 Interpersonal 30 Workshops

Reviewed:

1) 13 LCAs

2) 17 LCDs

3) 6 Contextual Messaging Factors

4) 10 Effective Messaging Factors

5) 30 Communication Channels

6) Total 76 Factors

7) Effective Campaigns incorporate 2/3’s of these

8) Aim for 50 of these…….


Example

Contact Details

Email: [email protected]@tea.ieAddress: Tipperary Energy Agency, Cahir, Tipperary and Centre for Environmental Research, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

27 cork co co

Documents