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Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)
Lecture 5: Acting green - sustainable behavior
Evolutionary perspective:
- Evolutionary perspective, focusing on:
- Ultimate vs proximate explanations
- Stone Age Brain in 21th century world
- Survival and reproduction
- Not of individuals but of genes
- Manifest in 5 “ancestral” tendencies
- Important to understand, also for effective interventions
Five “ancestral” tendencies:
1. Propensity for self-interest
- Ensure survival and replication of genes of self and family (inclusive fitness)
- Reciprocal altruism (in small, stable, interdependent groups)
2. Desire for relative status
- Costly signaling: spending --> resourceful -->attraction
- Competitive altruism/environmentalism: sacrificing increases status (visibility important) --> attraction
Example of status and self-interest: desire to plant trees is increased when name tag (of person who planted) is placed on the tree
Paradox of green to be seen by Van der Wal, Van Horen, and Grinstein (2016):
- Public signaling: Shopping at Ekoplaza vs. Marqt
- Ekoplaza (intrinsic motivation: environment)
- Marqt (extrinsic motivation: status)
- Finding: much more people bought Marqt bag than Ekoplaza bag
3. Unconsciously copying the behavior of others
- Adaptive value in the many situations where trial and error is too costly
- Effective for change when majority is seen to go along
- Humans are disposed to imitate those who are perceived as leaders
Social norms and hotel towels by Goldstein, Cialdini, and Griskevicius (2008)
What has more affect on peopoles' behavior when it comes to reusing a towel?
- INDUSTRY STANDARD: "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 the guests help the environment by reusing their towels. Help save the environment by reusing your towels yourself during your stay.
The "social norm" message was much more effective'
4. Following the present over the future
- Temporal discounting: people in general discount the future. So, emphasis should be on direct benefit
5. Disregarding impalpable concerns
- Difficult to appreciate environmental problems when there are no clear sensory (visual, audible, olfactory) cues. E.g.: problems that are not appearant in your immesdiate environment seem less important
Factors that influence behavior
- Information: beliefs, attitudes, values
- Behavior of others : normative pressure
- Financial regulation, legislation, physical change: change in beliefs about behavioral outcomes
Theory of Planned Behavior:Theory in which attitudinal, normative and control beliefs are modeled to predict behavior
- Illustration of Planned Behavior model: http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen
- Lacking in Planned Behavior model: personal norm
- Feeling of personal obligation to perform behavior based on internalized values
- Strong additional predictor for environmental behavior
- Derived from research on altruism, helping
- Adding personal norm: Schwarz’s Norm-Activation Theory (1977):
4 activators
1. Awareness of need
2. Responsibility ------> Personal norm -------> Evaluation ------->Behavior
3. Effective action
4. Ability
De Leeuw, A., Valois, P., Ajzen, I., & Schmidt, P., 2015. Using the theory of planned behavior to identify key beliefs underlying pro-environmental behavior in high-school students: Implications for educational interventions.
A longitudinal study showing the value of the Theory of Planned Behavior in predicting sustainable behavior
Making an important distinction between the injunctive norm and descriptive norm
Broadening the basic model by two important background factors
- Gender: previous research females > males
- Empathic concerns
Conclusions:
- Theory of Planned Behavior supported
- Attitude, descriptive social norm and perceived behavioral control predict sustainable behavior
- Influence of what peers do more important than own attitude
- No sex difference found
- Due to age and education?
- Empathic concern strengthens the sustainable normative beliefs and behavioral beliefs
- Showing the social dimension of sustainable behavior
Schultz, P. W., & Zelezny, L. C., 1998. Values and proenvironmental behavior: A five-country survey
- Recycling: USA > Mexico/Spain > Peru > Nicaragua
- Public transportation: Nicaragua/Spain/Peru > Mexico > USA
- Conserve water: Peru/Mexico > USA
- Purchasing environmentally safe products: Spain > USA
- Conserve energy: no differences found
Values and sustainable behavior:
- Countries do differ in the way sustainable behavior is displayed by its citizens
- Self-transcendence and openness are good predictors of sustainable behavior
- Self-enhancement is a good predictor of non-sustainable behavior
- Awareness of consequences and ascribed responsibility predict sustainable behavior
- Enhances the relation between self-transcendence and sustainable behavior
Thögersen and Ölander, 2006. The dynamic interaction of personal norms and environment-friendly buying behavior: A panel study.
- Who buys organic food?
- Which is expensive, has poor distribution, sometimes has lower quality, and buying which does not belong to routine pattern of consumer behavior
- And who continues to do so after a trial experience?
Finding:
- Personal norm is the strongest predictor of buying organic food
- Expensiveness defers people from buying organic food
Gifford, R., 2013. Dragons, mules, and honeybees: Barriers, carriers, and unwitting enablers of climate change action.
- Limited cognition: discounting time and place bound risk, plain ignorance, habituation, uncertainty
- Ideologies: religious, technological, free market
- Other people: anti-environmental examples create norm
- Sunk costs: e.g., car ownership, habits in general
- Disbelief, distrust, denial
- Risks: a manifold (functional, physical, financial, social, psychological, temporal)
- Limited behavior (symbolic behavior, rebound effects)
Environmental Psychology - Leiden University
Environmental Psychology
Education Category: General
Ages: 16+
Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)
Lecture 1: Setting the Scene
The focus of the course is on:
- The relations between persons and environments
- The social origin and meaning of (many) man-environment interactions
- Opportunities for ‘change for the better’: increased well-being, improved environmental quality, by behavioral interventions
People in the environment:
- In this topic we focus on theories, methods, and research designs that take the physical environment into account.
- What does the environment do to humans?
- What do humans do to the environment?
The social origin and meaning of man-environment interactions:
- Home, school, neighbourhood, workplace... All describe physically defined environments with a clearly social character
- Example: Green schoolyards result in better well-being for children than gray schoolyards
Opportunities for ‘change for the better’
- Raising awareness, using solar panels etc...
- Why and how do people act sustainably? How can we encourage them?
Career perspectives:
- Researcher (basic or applied)
- Consultant
- Environmental policy maker
- Environmental management
7 papers important for this topic
- Wohlwill (1970): Phylosofical introductory paper about the role of environmental psychology (this lecuture)
- Goldberg (1969): Observational study of specific urban phenomenon (topic of lecture 2)
- Kaplan (1995): Theoretical paper about the restorative effects of nature (topic of lecture 3)
- Gosling, Ko, Mannarelli, and Morris (2002): Systematic approach of using the environmental “design” to form a personality impression (topic of lecture 4)
- Hardin (1968): Descriptive paper about the psychological fundaments of the sustainability issues (topic of lecture 5)
- Van der Wal, Van Horen, and Grinstein (2018): Experimental design testing a strategy to enhance sustainable behavior (topic of lecture 6)
- Kotler (2011): Research letter to steer marketeers towards a more sustainable vision and mission (topic of lecture 7)
Wohlwill: (1970). The emerging discipline of environmental psychology. American Psychologist, 25, 303-312.
Three forms of relationship between person and physical environment:
The environment as a source of affect:
Wohlwill does not mention these important aspects in the paper:
- Individual differences in, e.g., sensation seeking, environmental concern, etc.
- Attitude formation and attitude change regarding environmental problems
- Problems that seem environmental but are primarily social, economic, educational (slums, ghetto’s)
Goldberg, T. (1969). The automobile. A social institution for adolescents. Environment and Behavior, 1, 152-185.
Premises
- Designers like to think about the relation between physical form and social behavior
- These insights are based on intuitions rather than on science
- These insights are often wrong, because:
- Intuition hardly works
- The scientific approach is shallow (misses in depth understanding of social processes)
Problem description:
- Adolescents have nowhere to go
- They like cars
- Therefore: They take the road for social gatherings
- Their problem solving creates problems for others: blocking of roads, creating unsafety, noise annoyance
No follow-up was made to find a solution to this issue
Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15, 169-182.
Attention Restoration Theory
3 components:
- Directed attention
- Directed attention requires capacity for inhibition of distraction (inhibitory mechanis
- When efforts to sustain directed attention are prolonged the inhibitory mechanism becomes exhausted
- Consequences of attentional fatigue
- Poor concentration
- Easily irritated
- Inclined to make errors
- Unwilling to help others
- Restoration
- Nature can help restore people's attention
- Being away from your daily life activities
- Finding something very interesting
- Match between what you like to do and the environment provides
- Feeling like there's enough time/accessibility to enjoy
Gosling, S. D. , Ko, S. J. Mannarelli, T., & Morris, M. E. (2002). A room with a cue: Personality judgments based on offices and bedrooms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 379-398.
Can we deduce personality about a person from the interior of a room?
Utilise cues (Brunswik's lens model)
4 types of cues:
- Self-directed identity claims (e.g.: souveniers from holidays)
- Other directed identity claims (e.g.: certificates)
- Interior behavioral residue (e.g.: piles of paper)
- Exterior behavior residue (e.g.: umbrella)
Data collection on 3 sources:
- Observing haracteristics of the room
- Occupant's and peers of occupant ratings on their personality
- Observer judgement: personality rating based on what they see in the room
Cue validity:cues that are good predictors for a certain trait
- Conscientiousness: Organized, uncluttered, homogeneous collections of books and CD’s
- Openness to experience: Distinctive, stylish, unconventional
- When good cues are used, trait inferences will be more accurate
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243-1248.
Environmental problems are problems of overpopulation
- Population growth should be 0 - a pair produces only 1 child on average
- Overpopulation has no technical solution
- The morality of an act is a function of the state of the system at the time it is performed
- “Flowing water purifies itself every 10 miles”
- Conscience actions is self-eliminating: if you decide not to have children for moral reasons, you might not be able to pass on this idea to the next generation
- Mutual coercion that is mutually agreed upon
- Freedom in a commons is a tragedy to all: common resources e.g. water, are limited
- Environmental consequences can be long-term and uncertain
Social dilemma: private interest vs environmental interest
- Behavior A is more advantageous for the individual than behavior B
- When everybody makes the same choice: behavior B has better outcomes for all individuals collectively than behavior A
Example: driving fast
Pro:
- Fun: “more in tune with experience driver”
- Faster home
Con:
- Costs: minimum 132 million euro
- Pollution: CO2, NO2, particulate matter, noise
- Risk of accidents: increase in number and seriousness
Defection enhanced by:
- Importance of common good to actor
- Perception of Abundance
- Uncertainty
- Environmental (Is climate change real? How important is it? What are the influences of human behavior?)
- Social (What do other people do?)
Averting the tragedy of the commons by Van Vugt (2009):
- Reducing environmental and social uncertainty
- Improving and broadening one’s sense of community
- Increasing acceptance of commons rules and institutions
- Punishing overuse and rewarding responsible use
Van der Wal, A.J., Van Horen, F., Grinstein, A. (2018). Temporal myopia in sustainable behavior under uncertainty. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 35, 378-393.
Life history theory
- People adopt a faster life strategy
- People become more focused on immediate outcomes
- Sustainable behavior is a slow life strategy
- Sustainable behavior holds a strong future component
If you want to get people engaged, focus on the immediate consequences and don't phrase things in terms of the future
Kotler, P. (2011). Reinventing marketing to manage the environmental imperative. Journal of Marketing, 75, 132-135
- Wants are culturally influenced and strongly shaped by marketing and other forces
- The earth’s resources are finite and fragile
- The earth’s carrying capacity for waste and pollution is very limited
- Quality of life and personal happiness do not always increase with more consumption and want satisfaction
Consumers steer sustainable marketing:
Dimensions for choosing a product/brand
- Functional (Marketing 1.0)
- Emotional (Marketing 2.0)
- Social responsibility (Marketing (3.0)
The four P's of sustainable marketing
- Questioning the necessity of new products
- Source of the materials and their carbon footprints
- Packaging: biodegradable and disposable
- Environmentally involved customers may be willing to pay more
- Pricing will be affected by possible new regulations
- More locally based production
- Online selling to reduce the amount of consumer driving
- Shift promotion from print to online
- Communicate their commitment to sustainability
- Product labeling: specify ingredients and their carbon footprints
Conclusion:
- Marketers should recognize finite resources and high environmental costs
- Marketers need to revise their policies on product development, pricing, distribution, and branding
- Companies must balance more carefully their growth goals with the need to pursue sustainability
Environmental Psychology 2 - Urban environment
Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)
Lecture 2: Going Into Town (the urban environment)
Pros and cons of living in an urban environment
+ More employment opportunity
+Cities are exciting, lively and diverse
+More cultural, educational and medical resources
- Crowdedness, information overload.
- High density
-Pollution
-Crime
Crowdedness and density
- Crowding is a personally defined, subjective feeling that too many others are around
- Density: people per square meter. Not identical to the subjective state of crowdedness
- Proximity to others can have even more adverse effects than density because of personal space invasion. Example: having to sit next to people on the train.
- Study about this phenomena: Evans, G.W., & Wener, R.E. (2007). Crowding and personal space invasion on the train: Please don't make me sit in the middle.
- Crowding became interpreted and studied as a specific stressor, involving:
- Antecedents
- Affective reaction
- Behavorial response
Antecedents
- Goal blocking (traffic jam, waiting in line)
- Threat of resource loss (food, shelter)
- Loss of control (unwanted interaction)
Affective reaction:
- Anger, annoyance (predominantly negative)
- Physiological reactions indicating increased arousal and stress
Behavioral response:
- Withdrawal, avoidance
- Filtering out information
- Changing social environment by increased selectivity in social contacts, creating norms
- Changing physical environment by partitioningspace, putting up fences, curtains etc.
How to deal with crowding?
- Residences: e.g. installing screens or walls
Amusement parks: queuing devices
Campings: zoning (grouping of like minded people)
- Prisons: huge differences between one- and more-person cells. Size is relatively unimportant. So, it is better to have one person cells, even if they are smaller
Information overload
Article on information overload in cities: Milgram (1970). The experience of living in cities.
- Decrease time per input
- Ignore low-priority input
- Shift to a more passive approach
- Impede access
Change in social responsibility:
Study: Allow strangers in the home; as a function of city size and gender (DV=% access allowed):
- Civility: less or different in character in cities
- Anonymity: blessing or curse? Anonymity makes people trust eachother less, but there is also less social pressure on people (less gossiping etc)
Article: Moser, G., & Corroyer, D. (2001). Politeness in the urban environment: Is city life still synonymous with civility?:
- Slightly different premise: Civility is an urban phenomenon
- Tacit rules
Environmental Psychology 3 - Nature
Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)
Lecture 3: Nature (taking a break)
People have been recommended to go to onature for its well-being effects since (at least) the 19th century
Epidemological research: understanding what factors determin a large population to get sick
De Vries et al., 2003. Natural Environments—Healthy Environments? An Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship between Greenspace and Health
- Representative sample of Dutch population (N = 17.000)
- Result: significant positive relationship between presence of green in neighbourhood and self reported health
Takano et al., 2002. Urban residential environments and senior citizens’ longevity in megacity areas: the importance of walkable green spaces
- Japanese longitudinal study, older inhabitants Tokio (N= 3144)
- Results: significant positive relationship between presence of ‘ walkable green’ and lower mortality within 5 years
Video demonstrating how green spaces improve well-being: https://vimeo.com/83228781
- Green spaces improve mental health short-term and long-term as well
Biophilia theory:
There is an innnate emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. It likely evolved while hunter-gatherers were living in, with, and of nature. That is why natural landscapes are intrinsically rewarding and enjoyable.
Two theories about recovery effect of nature:
- Perception of nature causes reduction of negative feelings and psychophysiological recovery of stress
2. Attention restoration theory (Kaplan, 1995):
- Perception of nature causes recovery of attentional fatigue
Lederbogen, F. et al.,2011. City living and urban upbringing affect neural social stress processing in humans
- Growing world’s population now lives in cities
- Creating a healthy urban environment is important
- Cities negatively affect mental health
- Mood and anxiety disorders are more prevalent
- Incidence of schizophrenia is higher
What neural processes can explain this relation?
- Activation of amygdala (indicator of stress)
- Activation of perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC; indicator of stress regulation)
Conclusion of study: People living in cities can not cope as well with social stress as people living more rural; especially with a childhood raised in urban areas
Bratman et al., 2015. Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation
- After a 90-minute walk participants of the nature walk, compared to the urban walk, reported less rumination, and also their brains showed less activity in pACC
Ulrich, R.,1984. View through a window may influence recovery.
- Archival study of 46 patients recovering from gallbladder surgery (records from 1972 to 1981)
- “Treatment”: assignment to room with wall view or nature view
- Patients matched on age, gender, smoking, obesity, hospitalization history, floor level, room color
- Findings:
Nature
.....read more
Environmental Psychology 4 -Spatial planning and design
Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)
Lecture 4: Spatial planning and design
Environmental perception
Compared to traditional perception research:
- Perceiver is in the scene
- Perceiver is purposive, has a plan
- Stimuli are complex (Berleyne’s three classes of stimulus properties):
- Psychophysical: intensity of stimulation, brightness of colors, volume of sound
- Ecological: indicative of positive or negative environmental conditions for people
- Collative stimulus properties
Collative stimulus properties
- Order=e.g.:symmetry
- Complexity
- Diversity =organized complexity
- Newness
- Surprisingness
Kaplan, R. & Kaplan, S.,1989. The experience of nature. A psychological perspective
BASIC NEEDS
Understanding Exploration
---------------------------------------------
Immediate Coherence Diversity
Inferred, Legibility Mystery
Predicted
Territoriality
- Primary (home, or spaces within home (e.g. bedroom)
- Secondary (office, lobby, stairway, elevator)
- Public (park, sidewalk, beach, parking place)
- Infringement (invasion, violation, contamination) and defense (preventative reaction)
- Warding off crime (defensible space), creating social order, improve maintenance (e.g. ‘adoption’ of neighbourhood park, playground, highway)
Applications in design and management for public territory
Kaplan, R. & Austin, M. E., 2004. Out in the country: sprawl and the quest for nature nearby
- People like to live near nature
- On an aggregate level this causes urban sprawl and the destruction of nature
- So for people moved to live “out in the country”, what were the main reasons?
Research questions:
- Which kind of nature is specifically liked?
- How important is nature for community satisfaction?
- Is there a way to solve the dilemma, make solutions more environmentally sustainable
Conclusion of research:
- Forest is most important satisfier of “living out in the country”
- Having a forest nearby is more satisfying
Environmental Psychology 5 - Acting Green
Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)
Lecture 5: Acting green - sustainable behavior
Evolutionary perspective:
- Evolutionary perspective, focusing on:
- Ultimate vs proximate explanations
- Stone Age Brain in 21th century world
- Survival and reproduction
- Not of individuals but of genes
- Manifest in 5 “ancestral” tendencies
- Important to understand, also for effective interventions
Five “ancestral” tendencies:
1. Propensity for self-interest
- Ensure survival and replication of genes of self and family (inclusive fitness)
- Reciprocal altruism (in small, stable, interdependent groups)
2. Desire for relative status
- Costly signaling: spending --> resourceful -->attraction
- Competitive altruism/environmentalism: sacrificing increases status (visibility important) --> attraction
Example of status and self-interest: desire to plant trees is increased when name tag (of person who planted) is placed on the tree
Paradox of green to be seen by Van der Wal, Van Horen, and Grinstein (2016):
- Public signaling: Shopping at Ekoplaza vs. Marqt
- Ekoplaza (intrinsic motivation: environment)
- Marqt (extrinsic motivation: status)
- Finding: much more people bought Marqt bag than Ekoplaza bag
3. Unconsciously copying the behavior of others
- Adaptive value in the many situations where trial and error is too costly
- Effective for change when majority is seen to go along
- Humans are disposed to imitate those who are perceived as leaders
Social norms and hotel towels by Goldstein, Cialdini, and Griskevicius (2008)
What has more affect on peopoles' behavior when it comes to reusing a towel?
- INDUSTRY STANDARD: "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 the guests help the environment by reusing their towels. Help save the environment by reusing your towels yourself during your stay.
The "social norm" message was much more effective'
4. Following the present over the future
- Temporal discounting: people in general discount the future. So, emphasis should be on direct benefit
5. Disregarding impalpable concerns
- Difficult to appreciate environmental problems when there are no clear sensory (visual, audible, olfactory) cues. E.g.: problems that are not appearant in your immesdiate environment seem less important
Factors that influence behavior
- Information: beliefs, attitudes, values
- Behavior of others : normative pressure
- Financial regulation, legislation, physical change: change in beliefs about behavioral outcomes
Theory of Planned Behavior:Theory in which attitudinal, normative and control beliefs are modeled to predict behavior
- Illustration of Planned Behavior model: http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen
- Lacking in Planned Behavior model: personal norm
- Feeling of personal obligation to perform behavior based on internalized values
- Strong additional predictor for environmental behavior
Environmental Psychology 6 - Sustainable intervention
Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)
Lecture 6: Sustainable interventions
Schultz, P. W., 2014. Strategies for promoting proenvironmental behavior.
- Identify specific behavior
- Identify barriers and incentives
- Program development
- Pilot test
- Full scale implementation and evaluation
Providing information/education:
- Providing insight into the structure of the environmental problems
- Increasing awareness of need
- Increasing responsibility
- Explaining personal benefits
- Changing social approval, social norm
- Decreasing social uncertainty
- Provide procedural information
- Changing affective meaning of environmental issues (e.g.: it's cool to drive a Tesla)
Direct behavioral information:
PROMPTS (encouragement/reminder)
- Effective if:
- Specific
- In proximity of target behavior
- Simple behavior (turning of light or water)
- Friendly
- Salient (catching attention)
FEEDBACK (information about performed behavior and/or effects of behavior)
- Effective if:
- Communicated soon after behavior
- In meaningful units
- Compared to relevant standard
- Goal present
Other types of interventions:
- Commitment
- Lokhorst, A. M., Werner, C., Staats, H., van Dijk, E., & Gale, J. L. (2013). Commitment and behavior change: A meta-analysis and critical review of commitment-making strategies in environmental research.
- Modelling: showing people how other people behave sustainably, and what you can do
- (see e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Td7jMJJF-4)
- Mobilizing social network (Carbon Conversations)
- Tailoring (direct your message as specific as possible to the target)
Staats, H., Harland, P., & Wilke, H. A., 2004. Effecting durable change: A team approach to improve environmental behavior in the household
- EcoTeam approach to improve environmental behavior in the household
- An intervention package of information, feedback and social support, preferably in a group setting
- Competence building, intrinsic motivation, trying without risk
- Mobilizing social networks
- Governmental support
EcoTeam Program:
Structured action program for environmental behavior in the household
Three components:
- Workbook: background information and specific behavioral advice
- Feedback: information about the effects of previously performed behavior
- EcoTeam: support, information, social comparison
Findings/Conclusion:
- Social influence is the only factor that can buffer the negative effect of strong car use habits
- EcoTeam Program is a demanding program with extraordinary sustainable behavioral changes and savings
- EcoTeam Program manages to keep prior sustainable intentions “alive” (despite the non-sustainable habits), due to social influence of the Team
Poortinga, W., & Whitaker, L., 2018. Promoting the use of reusable coffee cups through environmental messaging, the provision of alternatives and financial incentives
Problem of disposable coffee cups (in UK)
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