Topic 3: Recycling and other Conservation Behaviours: Lord (1994)

Question 1

(Topic 3: Lord) What is the aim of the study?

Answer 1

• To investigate the effectiveness of different ways of trying to persuade people to recycle.
• Specifically how best to frame messages (positively in terms of benefits or negatively in terms of consequences of not recycling).
• Also whether it is best to convey the message in the form of an advert or a personal message.

Question 2

(Topic 3: Lord) Describe the sample in this study.

Answer 2

140 households (20 per condition) were approached in a north eastern US community.

Of those that responded 57% were female, age range was 19-65 with a mean of 34.9.

Question 3

(Topic 3: Lord) Method: What happened on the first week.

Answer 3

On bin day the student assistants observed and recorded the contents of the recycling bin for each household. Total items were recorded as well as what form of item e.g. cans

Question 4

(Topic 3: Lord) Method: What happened the next day?

Answer 4

A message was left at the front door of each property.

Question 5

(Topic 3: Lord) Method: Describe what happened to the control group.

Answer 5

There was no message for the control group but for the other 120.

Question 6

(Topic 3: Lord) List the 5 different independent variables (messages).

Answer 6

1) Positive messages
2) Negative messages
3) Advertisment
4) Publicity
5) Personal influence

Question 7

(Topic 3: Lord) IVs: Describe what the positive messages consisted of.
And whether the message was positive or negative.

Answer 7

Focuses on the benefits of recycling, this could be on the individual or society.

Positive

Question 8

(Topic 3: Lord) IVs: Describe what the negative messages consisted of.
And whether the message was positive or negative.

Answer 8

Focus on the risks and consequences of not recycling.

Negative

Question 9

(Topic 3: Lord) IVs: Describe what the advertisement consisted of.
And whether the message was positive or negative.

Answer 9

Looked like an advert from a company who distributes environmentally friendly products.

Positive

Question 10

(Topic 3: Lord) IVs: Describe what publicity consisted of.
And whether the message was positive or negative.

Answer 10

Described as having recently appeared in a local news publication.

Negative

Question 11

(Topic 3: Lord) IVs: Describe what personal influence consisted of.
And whether the message was positive or negative.

Answer 11

A letter signed by a student and addressed to a personal acquaintance

Positive/negative

Question 12

(Topic 3: Lord) Describe what happened after the message was left at the door (the following week), and what the questionnaire consisted of.

Answer 12

The following week (after the stimulus had been left) the assistants once again observed the recycling bins and recorded items

The day after, each house was visited with a questionnaire
- 7 point Likert scale assessing beliefs on recycling (definitely false to definitely true)
-Semantic differential scale of attitudes –about recycling, e.g. good-bad, wise - foolish , favourable- unfavourable
- Demographic information also taken e.g. income, gender, age.

Question 13

(Topic 3: Lord) What were participants assured of and what were they asked to do?

Answer 13

They were assured of anonymity and asked to return the questionnaire in a sealed envelope.

Question 14

(Topic 3: Lord) Describe the overall results regarding the experimental conditions.

Answer 14

The experimental conditions (anyone who received a stimulus) showed an increase in total items recycled and categories of items recycled - compared with the control group.

Question 15

(Topic 3: Lord) Describe the overall results regarding positively and negatively framed messages.

Answer 15

Those who received a positively framed message had a significant increase in favourable attitudes towards recycling and beliefs in the rationale for recycling compared to those with the negatively framed message.

Question 16

(Topic 3: Lord) Describe the overall results regarding the advertising stimulus.

Answer 16

The advertising stimulus (when positively framed) was the most successful message source when it came to beliefs and in terms of a behavioural change the personal influence condition was most successful especially when negatively framed.

Question 17

(Topic 3: Lord) Describe the conclusion.

Answer 17

Lord concludes that a combination of message types would yield the most success.
So having both positive and negative messages in a single message could produce attitudinal benefits from the positive message and behavioural benefits from the negative message.
To increase recycling a positively framed message in the mass media as well as recruiting concerned consumers to convey negatively framed PERSONAL messages amongst their friends & neighbours, would be most effective.