I am the Director at Action Research and have extensive experience managing and directing projects for multi-jurisdictional public agencies, non-profits, and private businesses. I've directed CBSM projects on stormwater, composting, energy conservation, water conservation, and transportation. My background is in applied social psychology and have expertise in designing field experiments in a research environment. I've worked in both professional and academic positions, conducting field research in the areas of environmental attitudes, community outreach, and behavior change.
10 Comments
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Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-14 01:05:55 UTC
Q: Something I would like to talk about is phone calls. How does one get numbers? We rarely have people give us their phone number but will give us their emails. We have called people and less than half answered their phones. Of course, we left a voice message.
A: There are companies that can provide lists of phone numbers based on specific criteria (geographic location, home ownership, etc.). They compile lists from various sources and are actually able to screen for a wide range of characteristics. We often purchase these lists for mail-based surveys and, in some cases, we have them also append phone numbers. That said, we rarely use telephone for survey work anymore due to the very low response rates. When we use phone calls, it is usually when we are targeting a specific group such as business owners in a particular region, government representatives, etc. Whether or not phone is the right choice depends on what you are trying to accomplish as well as the audience. The company we use for lists is called MSG, https://www.m-s-g.com/Pages/
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Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-14 01:05:33 UTC
Q: Are people more motivated to make behavioral changes if they are told about potential negative health outcomes?
A: Fear-based messages for health related outcomes can be effective if there is something actionable that someone can do to reduce their risk. However, this isn't universal and the effectiveness of these communications can vary based on many factors including perceived risk, severity, sociocultural factors, etc. -
Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-14 01:05:13 UTC
Q: How do we know if these results are not the outcome of something that is already pre-determined - such as they were walkers before they broke their hip, and therefore more motivated to write down a walking plan
A: In studies like this, participants are randomly assigned to be exposed to the strategy or not. Random assignment minimizes the pre-existing differences between groups. Random assignment with sufficient sample sizes will typically results in equal number of walkers in the treatment and control groups. Therefore, you can be more confident any difference observed between groups is due to the intervention rather than to pre-propensities, or other influences.
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Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-14 01:04:55 UTC
Q: Based on your research would being a male be a benefit in this case? [in relation to outreach personnel]
A: It could vary depending on the audience and behavior. This is something that you could certainly test during a pilot before your pilot. That is, before launching your pilot, you might conduct a small experiment in which you vary the gender of the researcher and record responses/compliance. I have seen some studies that have tested gender effects of interviewers for survey research (even some that vary the voice of an AI interviewer as male or female). The results are interesting and show different impacts based on the type of question being asked.
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Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-14 01:04:29 UTC
Various resources shared during the workshop:
APA Division 34 Graduate Programs in Environmental and Conservation Psychology: https://www.apadivisions.org/division-34/about/resources/graduate-programs
Contagious: Why Things Catch On (Jonah Berger) - https://jonahberger.com/books/
Soap Operas for Social Change (Heidi Nariman) – www.amazon.com/Soap-Operas-Social-Change-Entertainment-Education/dp/0275943895
Environmental Problems and Human Behavior (Gardner and Stern) – https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Problems-Behavior-Gerald-Gardner/dp/0536686335
Ethics in Social Marketing (Alan Andreasen) http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/ethics-social-marketing
Block leaders/ eco teams - The author is David Gershon with the Empowerment Institute, https://empowermentinstitute.net/ There are a few books. One is called the Low Carbon Diet, another is the Green Living Handbook. This is a Philadelphia program that uses block leaders: https://www.phila.gov/programs/philadelphia-more-beautiful-committee/
Communication via local news weather people (Ed Maibach) - https://toolsofchange.com/en/case-studies/detail/743
New South Wales Don’t be a Tosser campaign - https://www.dontbeatosser.epa.nsw.gov.au/dont-be-a-tosser-campaign
Improving communicating science - http://cred.columbia.edu/ and https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/communicating-climate-change
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Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-11 20:18:26 UTC
Q – Are prompts considered different than "nudges" (nudge theory)?
A – Prompts are designed specifically to address forgetting - to remind people to engage in the action. Nudges typically make changes in the decision environment in order to "nudge" people to a particular choice. For example, making programs opt out rather than opt in, selling devices with energy-efficiency settings already enabled, etc. Prompts can be nudges, but not all nudges are prompts. -
Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-11 20:18:08 UTC
Q – Would you mind expanding on the "promote involvement" commitment guideline a bit?
A – Typically this looks like getting them actively involved in participating in the behavior or some element of it. For example, if promoting composting, you might have people actually turn a pile at a demonstration event. If promoting bike riding, you may host some short rides. Generally, people don't see themselves as spending time on things that they don't care about. -
Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-11 20:17:49 UTC
Q – Where do you find people willing to participate in focus groups? Particularly the people not doing the behavior.
A – Whenever possible we start with a list drawn at random from the population and then personally invite them. We learn through screening whether or not they are active or inactive. Other times, we find people through intercept interviews. For example, if we are interested in manure management/composting practices of horse owners, we might intercept people outside of a feed store. Sometimes, we observe whether or not people are engaged in the behavior and then approach them with an invitation. For example, we may observe whether or not people in a beach area are complying with leash laws or not. Sometimes you might have a list to go on (e.g. customer list from a waste hauler that shows who is signed up for curbside recycling vs. not). Often you'll need to really think through ways to recruit the people you need. -
Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-11 20:17:30 UTC
Q – Is there a sharp distinction between social diffusion and norms or is it a gradual fuzzy delineation?
A – They are different concepts. Stated most simply, social diffusion is the process by which new behaviors make their way (diffuse) through the community. There are certain factors that make behaviors more likely to diffuse (e.g., visibility). Social norms are perceived informal rules that define what is accepted or appropriate behavior within a given group or community. -
Re: Introductory Workshop Discussion Forum
2023-12-11 20:02:14 UTC
Various Resources Provided in Chat:
Tools of Change: https://toolsofchange.com
American Association for Public Opinion Research www.aapor.org
Transitions from Telephone Surveys to Self-Administered and Mixed-Mode Surveys. It, along with other reports on this topic can be downloaded for free at: https://aapor.org/publications-resources/reports/
Anti idling toolkit - https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy/efficiency/communities-infrastructure/transportation/idling/4469
Gonzales, Marti & Aronson, Elliot & Costanzo, Mark. (2006). Using Social Cognition and Persuasion to Promote Energy Conservation: A Quasi‐Experiment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 18. 1049 - 1066. 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1988.tb01192.x.
Text-based messaging services: https://www.trumpia.com ; https://www.modicagroup.com/ ; https://ifttt.com/ ; https://sakari.io/ ; https://mailchimp.com/resources/text-message-marketing
Environmental Problems and Human Behavior - https://a.co/d/eN4ClWD
Clean Marina Program - https://floridadep.gov/rcp/clean-marina/content/clean-marina
Contagious: Why Things Catch On (Jonah Berger) - https://jonahberger.com/books/
Bystander intervention training - https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/life/support-and-wellbeing/wellbeing-topics/sexual-harm/bystander-intervention
Soap Operas for Social Change (Heidi Nariman) – www.amazon.com/Soap-Operas-Social-Change-Entertainment-Education/dp/0275943895
Bike share tracking app - https://watchaware.com/watch-apps/439178284
APA Division 34 Graduate Programs in Environmental and Conservation Psychology: https://www.apadivisions.org/division-34/about/resources/graduate-programs
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