Promoting Environmentalism

Journal of Social Issues, Fall, 2000 by Lynnette C. Zelezny, P. Wesley Schultz

The issue's fifth section, "New Ways to Promote Proenvironmental Behavior," offers four articles. The first, by Stephen Kaplan, examines "Human Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behavior." Kaplan suggests that the altruism-centered approach to environmentalism has been limiting; therefore, he proposes an alternative approach using insights from cognitive science and human evolution.

Kaplan argues that behavior is determined by multiple motives; that is, the same action can be produced in two people using different motives. He suggests a Reasonable Person Model that, rather than imposing "good" motives in an attempt to produce "good" behavior, identifies reasons that individuals give for proenvironmental behavior. Conceptually, Kaplan's Reasonable Person Model posits that it may be easier to promote environmentally responsible behavior if we recognize human nature and circumstances that foster motivation. Kaplan's alternative approach focuses on reducing guilt and feelings of helplessness and supporting durable motivation and innovative problem solving in promoting environmentally responsible behavior. The second article, by Raymond De Young, deals with "Expanding and Evaluating Motives for Environmentally Responsible Behavior." In this article, De Young distinguishes between proenvironmental behavior motivated by incentives and that motivated by altruism. De Young suggests the need to broaden the range of motives in promoting environmentalism. Further, he examines a new motivational strategy for promoting responsible proenvironmental behavior using intrinsic satisfaction, which has impressive potential. He argues that promoting proenvironmental behavior depends on identifying motives that are strong, durable, generalizable, and culturally compatible with the individual. In the third article, "The Application of Persuasion Theory to the Development of Effective Proenvironmental Public Service Announcements," Renee Bator and Robert Cialdini discuss some of the important considerations in developing effective public service announcements. Bator and Cialdini provide specific guidelines, drawn from research on social influence and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, for developing effective public service announcements. The guidelines include measures of commitment and consistency, habits, and behavioral intentions. They discuss the importance of defining the optimal target audience for public service announcements, testing reactions using pilot messages, and ways to evaluate message effectiveness. The fourth article, by Doug McKenzie-Mohr, is titled "Promoting Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing." In this article, McKenzie-Mohr laments the continued use of information-intensive campaigns to foster behavior change. He provides a four-step model for effective community-based social marketing. Case studies of backyard composting and water efficiency programs are presented to illustrate the process of social marketing.