dr. ronald e. mcnair acknowledgements - University of St. Thomas

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UST McNair Scholars Program Research Journal and held by others, social norms, are especially motivating to our own behaviors. People are more likely to engage in a behavior if they perceive many others in the same situation behave a certain way (Cialdini, 2009). In a second study conducted by Nolan and colleagues (2008), an experimental design was used to determine which forms of motivational messages were most effective to actually reducing participants’ home energy use. The households received either a self-serving (financial), environmental, social responsibility (ethical), information only (control), or descriptive normative message. The descriptive normative messages informed households that the majority of neighborhood residents were making an effort to conserve energy in some way. Meter readings were used to measure the energy used by the households. Over the next month, the households that received the descriptive norm messages used less energy than all of the households in other conditions combined. These findings provide strong evidence for the effectiveness of normative messages on changing people’s behaviors. Other research has also found social norms and normative pressure to be effective in promoting proenvironmental behavior change. Griskevicius, Tybur, & Van (2010) found consumers purchased “green” products more often when in public than when in private, suggesting that for many people green consumption is done more for public acceptance than as an altruistic act on the behalf of the environment. In another study, conducted by Schultz (1999), descriptive normative information, how we believe most people behave in a situation, was the most powerful influence on people’s behavior. The study found that when information was given to households regarding the amount recycled by a neighborhood family, the amount and frequency of curbside recycling behaviors of other neighbors increased. Finally, a study by Goldstein, Cialdini, and Griskevicius (2008) found that hotel guests reused their towels 23 percent more when normative messages were displayed in the bathroom promoting towel reuse compared to when no message was present. These results demonstrate that people are motivated to change their behaviors when they are influenced by normative information. It appears that social norms and normative messages can influence a range of “green” behaviors, however, no study to date has addressed whether normative information 50 might motivate people to reduce their food waste. There are strong social, environmental, and economic reasons why people should be motivated to waste less food. Are these reasons strong enough? In the Nolan et al. study (2008), the social, environmental, and economic reasons for conserving energy were often cited, but in fact a normative message about energy conservation was the most influential when it came to actual behavior. Is it possible that the same is true for the issue of food waste? The current study is a partial replication of the second Nolan et al. study to examine motivations for reducing food waste. We hypothesized, following Nolan et al.’s results, normative messages regarding food waste would be rated as the least motivational and the environmental and social responsibility messages would be rated as the most motivational. PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE The current study is based on prior research by Nolan and colleagues’ (2008) investigation into motivations to conserve energy. Nolan et al. used a single item dependent variable asking people how motivated they were by the particular energy conservation message they had received. The current study includes this item but also includes two additional measures: salience and abstraction. A 19-item scale that assesses personal engage - ment/salience regarding food waste and institutional affiliation was included in the survey. Food waste is an issue that may not seem relevant to the American public. Food waste does not present a direct threat like war, weather, or a faltering economy. Thus, it is not an issue people think much about. By measuring personal salience, we can see whether messages about food waste make the issue more relevant and psychologically present. People do not see polluting landfills, starving people, or wasted money as a result when they throw away food. Thus, the idea of wasted food being a problem remains abstract. An abstract problem is not as emotionally engaging and is less likely to result in action (Marx, Weber, Orlove, Leiserowitz, Krantz, Roncoli & Phillips, 2007) A scene becomes less abstract when individuals are presented with a visual representation of the scene (Henderson, 2005). Therefore, a second variable tested in this study was
Bridgette Kelly Environmental Sciences Reducing food waste the effect of an image of food waste. We hypothesized presenting participants with a picture of wasted food would make the issue less abstract, more concrete, and more personally engaging and salient than if they did not have a visual representation of food waste. Thus, participants presented with a message including a scene of food waste should report being more motivated to reduce their food waste than those presented with messages not including the picture. MITIGATING COLLEGE CAMPUS FOOD WASTE Relatively little research has been done on food waste in the U.S., but the issue is gaining the attention of certain thoughtful, young activists throughout the nation. The current study was conducted on a college campus. Though food waste is not an issue that has gained much attention in households in the U.S., there has been a growing movement to reduce food waste on college campuses (G.J., 2005; Hattam, 2007; Sullivan, 2010). Efforts include promotional campaigns geared at reducing food waste, removing trays in the cafeterias to lessen the amount of food taken by students, and displaying a day’s worth of cafeteria food waste to show students how much they are wasting. College is a time in life when young adults have new experiences in ambiguous situations. People most often look at others around them when deciding how to behave in ambiguous situations, especially when they feel those people share similarities with them (Cialdini, 2007). The college atmosphere fosters both of these elements, thus looking to others to provide information on how to properly behave will often be employed during college. Students form lifestyle habits that will predict their future behaviors (Neal, Wood, & Quinn, 2006), making it important to mitigate their food waste habits as early as possible. Furthermore, younger generations have been reported to be less involved in pro-environmental behaviors (i.e. energy conservation) than older generations (Nolan, Schultz, Cialdini, Goldstein, and Griskevicius; 2008), making it even more important to investigate college students’ motivations to reduce food waste. The proactive role taken by college students about the issue of food waste suggests there is already an infra - structure in place. This provides an opportunity to increase involvement in reducing food waste through under - standing attitudes, current behaviors, and motivations to reduce food waste stated by students. These young adults may eventually become the leaders, decision makers, and work force in the U.S. Knowing how to captivate this audience to reduce the amount of food they waste would be a pivotal step toward a waste(less) society in the future. This project endeavored to find effective ways of communicating the food waste issue to the public. This project sought to do three things: 1) Identify which messages college students rate as the most motivating to reduce their food waste, 2) Determine whether a picture of food waste affects reported motivations to reduce food waste, and 3) Determine whether personal relevance of a message is correlated with participants’ rated motivation. METHOD INFORMAL STUDENT POLL The researcher first conducted an informal poll of 20 undergraduate students from the University of St. Thomas and Macalester College. The participants were contacted via a facebook message. The message informed students that participation in the poll was voluntary, answers would remain anonymous, and the purpose of the poll was to provide the researcher with information regarding students’ current efforts to reduce food waste. Participants were then directed to a Qualtrics survey link that asked “Do you try not to leave uneaten food on your tray when you bring it to the dish room in order to reduce the amount of food you waste?” The participants answered either “yes” or “no.” The percentage of students that answered “yes” served as a statistic utilized in the descriptive norm intervention during the study. INTERVENTION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE SURVEY Participants Undergraduate students at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota volunteered to participate in this study. No particular age, gender, or ethnicity was targeted for this study. Students were recruited through a variety of methods. A posting in the campus’s daily online bulletin advertised the study, listed the researcher’s contact 51
Page 1 and 2: DR. RONALD E. MCNAIR Ronald E. McNa
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACT The purpose of the present
Page 5 and 6: Oluwademilade Adediran Psychology M
Page 21 and 22: ABSTRACT Early childhood education
Page 23 and 24: Kesha Berg Public Policy Enhancing
Page 43 and 44: ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency vir
Page 45 and 46: Mondraya Howard Pharmacy HIV-1 Resi
Page 47 and 48: Mondraya Howard Pharmacy HIV-1 Resi
Page 49 and 50: ABSTRACT Food waste in the United S
Page 51: Bridgette Kelly Environmental Scien
Page 55 and 56: Bridgette Kelly Environmental Scien
Page 63 and 64: ABSTRACT This research discusses he
Page 65 and 66: Chia Lee Public Health Health care
Page 75 and 76: Mai-Eng Lee Social Work Teachers’
Page 83 and 84: APPENDIX B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Back

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