The Influence of Social Norms and Message Framing on Environmental Decision Making

This research is an online experimental study that will be conducted through Qualtrics. In the first block of trials, participants will read five hypothetical scenarios about various environmental initiatives taking place in different communities, followed by a self-report item (e.g., a Likert-type item). The item will measure their support for each initiative. In the second block of trials, participants once again make decisions about the five hypothetical scenarios from block one but are randomly assigned to one of three social norm conditions: descriptive (what most people are doing), injunctive (what others should be doing), or a control (no social norm) group. The framing of environmental outcomes will also be manipulated for the block two trials (i.e., a gain vs. loss frame). As a result, participants will be randomly administered to one of six variations of the block two environmental decision-making task: descriptive social norm information with a gain frame, descriptive social norm information with a loss frame, injunctive social norm information with a gain frame, injunctive social norm information with a loss frame, and a control (no social information) condition with a gain frame, or a control (no social information) condition with a loss frame. For example, a gain-framed message may state, "Reducing the amount of single-use plastic could lead to...," while a loss-framed message could read, "Not reducing the amount of single-use plastic could lead to…." This creates a 2 x 3 experimental design. Participants will then respond to self-report items asking about their likelihood of engaging in the initiative and the perceived effectiveness of the initiative (e.g., Likert-type items). After the block two environmental decision-making task, participants will complete the Pro-Environmental Behavior Survey, adapted from Larson, Stedman, Cooper, & Decker (2015), which assesses how frequently people are expected to engage in various pro-environmental activities in their local area. For this study, a timeframe of six months will be used to set realistic expectations for participants to reflect on future behaviors. Overall, this experimental framework seeks to understand how social influence and message framing impacts environmental decision making and whether this influence can affect pro-environmental self-report behavior.