University of Utah Undergraduate Research Abstracts, Volume 2, Spring 2002

Signs That Increase Behavior Change: An Ecological Approach

Signs That Increase Behavior Change: An Ecological Approach Instructional messages are used frequently to guide behavior in public settings. Signs tell us where to park and when we should stop at an intersection. This experiment tested the hypothesis that messages would have more impact if they were sensitive to the social ecology of the setting. "Social ecology" is a way of thinking about human behavior. It emphasizes that peoples' behaviors are part of a total system, including the physical environment, social rules, and individual habits and patterns of behavior. Although people can study in the library and in the residence halls, the social ecology of the two settings is completely different. In the library, most people study alone. In the residence halls, people do more than study, so there are many distractions. If students want to study alone, they usually stay in their rooms, groups might study in the lobby, but they are often quite loud, and may even give up studying completely. This experiment used a 2x2 factorial design to manipulate the absence/presence of a social ecology-relevant message and a weak or strong reason to comply with the message. There were four conditions: no social ecology/no persuasion; social ecology/no persuasion; no social ecology/persuasion; and social ecology/persuasion. The hypothesis was that a sign with neither social ecological relevance nor a strong persuasive message would have little impact on behavior, but that combining social ecology and persuasion would result in the greatest change in behavior. There was partial support for this hypothesis. As expected, the no social ecology/no persuasion sign yielded no change in behavior. In addition, there was a simple main effect for social ecology, so that both messages containing social ecological relevance had a significant influence on behavior. Thus, in this experiment, a message that addressed the social ecology of the behavior was more effective than a strongly persuasive message. Sari N. Byerly Class Standing: Senior Major: Psychology E-mail: [e-mail] Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Carol Werner Department: Social Psychology and Environmental Studies E-mail: [e-mail]