Effects of Education, Social Norms, and Green Identity: Behavioral Intent to Compost
Submission Type
Event
Expected Graduation Date
2015
Location
Room E103 Center for Natural Sciences
Start Date
4-18-2015 11:00 AM
End Date
4-18-2015 12:00 PM
Disciplines
Psychiatry and Psychology
Abstract
Psychological theory and research can be applied to offer insight into the cognitions, emotions, and behaviors of individuals’ environmentally relevant actions (Kazdin, 2009). Research on Community-Based Social Marketing (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) provided a backbone for this research on students’ behavioral intent to compost at Illinois Wesleyan University. We assessed the impact of a brief video-based intervention (no information, information only, information plus social modeling) and pro-environmental identity on participants’ reactions to composting, specifically with respect to their attitudes, knowledge, perceptions of subjective norms, and behavioral intentions. Results indicated a main effect for the video intervention on subjective norms, behavioral intent, and knowledge, with participants in the information only and the information plus modeling conditions expressing more favorable reactions to composting than participants in the no information condition. Results have implications for techniques to further enhance composting on college campuses.
Effects of Education, Social Norms, and Green Identity: Behavioral Intent to Compost
Room E103 Center for Natural Sciences
Psychological theory and research can be applied to offer insight into the cognitions, emotions, and behaviors of individuals’ environmentally relevant actions (Kazdin, 2009). Research on Community-Based Social Marketing (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) provided a backbone for this research on students’ behavioral intent to compost at Illinois Wesleyan University. We assessed the impact of a brief video-based intervention (no information, information only, information plus social modeling) and pro-environmental identity on participants’ reactions to composting, specifically with respect to their attitudes, knowledge, perceptions of subjective norms, and behavioral intentions. Results indicated a main effect for the video intervention on subjective norms, behavioral intent, and knowledge, with participants in the information only and the information plus modeling conditions expressing more favorable reactions to composting than participants in the no information condition. Results have implications for techniques to further enhance composting on college campuses.