CMNS 325 Final Exam Review

What are best practices for creating commitments?

Written is better than verbal, getting groups to commit, personal touch, voluntary, receiving positive feedback

Why are public commitments better than private ones?

Public commitments are better than private because it can foster social norms and social diffusion. If a commitment is public, we are more likely to honor to remain seen as consistent to others.

What is Canada’s “Turn It Off” campaign?

Campaign for idle free zones, to get people to turn off car’s engine while not driving.

What was the first strategy of the “Turn It Off” campaign?

Minimum of 4 signs were placed in locations at schools/parking lots. The signs alone made no impact on people idling their cars.

What was the second strategy of the “Turn It Off” campaign?

They kept the signs in place but also used personal contact with prompts and commitments and led to idling decreasing by 32%

What is the Hotel Towel Reuse campaign?

A hotel tested 3 different messages in bathrooms to see if one would lead to towel reuse.

What were the three messages used in the Hotel Towel Reuse campaign?

Environmental protection, descriptive norm, room specific descriptive norm

What were the goals of the Redwood River Clean Water Project?

Reduce sediment and nutrients in watershed, increase game fish habitat, reduce peak flows, increase watershed awareness

How did the Redwood River Clean Water Project use social diffusion in their campaign?

Divided the watershed into 5 sub-watersheds farmers were encouraged to engage in the best management practices that limit soil erosion and pollution runoff.

What are injunctive norms?

societal approval/disapproval

What are descriptive norms?

Societal practice, what other people are doing

What is social diffusion?

Social diffusion is the rate at which people adapt new ideas/behaviors.

What are the best practices for creating prompts?

Visual or auditory reminder, noticeable and self-explanatory, positive actions, close to behavior site

What is choice architecture?

Choice architecture is subtle cues in our environments about what to do and how to act.

What are the three primary elements of decision making?

Salience, priming, messenger

What is salience in decision making?

Obvious choice

What is priming in decision making?

Exposure to information that directly influences the inducement of a certain behavior

What is messenger in decision making?

opinion of the messenger can be a shortcut for assessing the validity of the message

What are the conditions where choice architecture works best?

Smaller to medium sized behaviors, target moments of change/disruption/transition

What are the best practices for promoting sustainable practices regarding incentives?

size of incentive, pair incentive with behavior, make incentive visible, reward positive behavior

What are the best practices for promoting sustainable practices regarding disincentives?

make the non-desirable behavior have monetary cost, increase non-monetary costs of non-desirable behavior

What is the difference between one-sided and two-sided messages?

One-sided messages focus on highlighting the positives of a behavior, while two-sided messages acknowledge both the strengths and weaknesses of the behavior.

When should one-sided messages be used?

One-sided messages should be used when targeting an audience that is favorably disposed toward the view being presented or if they are unlikely to be exposed to the other side.

When should two-sided messages be used?

Two-sided messages should be used when targeting an audience that is more disposed toward the opposing view or if they are skeptical.