This study was conducted by the NetBalance Foundation on behalf of EPA Victoria, amongst others.

This is a good read – a paper making the case for examining and intervening onto the ‘behavoural landscape’ rather than focusing on values alone (see Weathercocks post for a link to the counter argument).

 From abstract:

Editors’Summary: Individual behavior impacts the environment, but what impacts individual behavior? Effective laws and regulations, strong financial incentives and penalties, social pressure, and the like leave little room for personal values to influence behavior. It is only when these contextual influences are weak that personal factors are likely to play a larger role. Paul Stern therefore argues that the best way to change behavior depends on the behavior and its

context and that interventions in the context are more effective than targeting individuals directly with verbal appeals, information, or other efforts to change attitudes or beliefs. And because a variety of factors influence behavior, creative approaches involving multiple influences on behavior offer the greatest potential for change.

A bunch of interesting snippets from a newspaper report on the August 2008 (US) APAs conference on environment and behaviour.

I’m going to this workshop as part of the Australian Psychological Association’s Conference in Hobart at the end of September 2008. It sounds good.

Environmental attitudes and actions in context

Uzzell, D.
Saturday 27 September, 8.30am – 4.30pm

This workshop will provide a review of research methodologies and findings on environmental behaviour change, including social marketing techniques, identity theory and social norms. There will be interactive sessions to collect data from workshop participants on their perceptions of environmental issues, followed by analyses of this material using co-orientation analysis, discourse analysis, and Boal’s conflict resolution techniques to understand socially situated environmental attitudes and practices. The workshop will especially interest psychology researchers; psychologists working in policy settings (e.g. national, federal and local government); psychologists working on behaviour change programmes; and doctoral students especially from environmental, social and political psychology.

The Greenlight report is a review of the attitudes and behaviour of Victorian’s towards the environment and sustainability, with a particular focus on household and transport behaviours. Running for the first time in 2008, and planned to run annually, it has the potential to mirror the NSW ‘Who Cares Study’ over time. Unlike that report, it does not (yet?) cover indications of the level of knowledge and understanding, nor as wide a range of behaviours and civic participation. It has largely been produced by Sustainability Victoria with the support of the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

This is a 2007 supplementary study on public water and climate change perceptions, building on the longrunning (1992) and comprehensive ‘Who Cares About the Environment’ study by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change.