This article presents and illustrates the argument for an experimental approach to the study of problems to which social science evidence and theory can make a practical contribution. First, following exploratory research to identify potentially weighty influences on the social behavior under consideration, quasi-experiments are conducted to gain further confidence that these influences are of significance. The next step is to recreate the social behavior under laboratory control and study its determinants experimentally. A final step is to study separately the most significant variables in true experiments. These may be conducted in both laboratory and field settings. The process is illustrated with studies of variables involved in involuntary cross-racial contact as they affect race relations and attitude change. The relevance to constructive contributions to the process of school desegregation is discussed.In this article I discuss my research on the effect of personal contact on attitudes and relationships with persons from disliked groups. Such work is often referred to as research on the contact hypothesis.I first became interested in the contact hypothesis in the late 1940s, immediately following World War II. Concern for reducing racial and religious prejudice was high at the time. In the immediate background was the Jewish holocaust. In addition to serving as a direct shock, the Jewish tragedy had the indirect effect of raising the level of consciousness regarding racial discrimination in the United States. Two things attracted me personally to the contact approach to prejudice--in contrast, for example, with major alternative approaches such as persuasive communication or education. One consideration was the political climate of the times, which made government-enforced desegregation seem possible. I realized that if this were to happen, more knowledge about involuntary racial contact would be needed from behavioral scientists. The second consideration was my personal history. I grew up in the rural South and had many opportunities to observe and experience a type of interracial contact that left prejudice untouched.

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This paper introduces a conceptual framework aimed at integrating the conservation behavior literature and facilitating the comparison of findings across studies. Within this framework, conservation behavior is approached from the theoretical orientations of attitude change, behavior modification and behavior maintenance. Seven commonly used approaches to encouraging conservation behavior are described in terms of these perspectives. Illustrative research related to each approach is reviewed. 73 COOK A N D BERRENBERGT h e theoretical analyses of the seven energy conservation approaches call upon a common set of concepts gleaned from the work of behavioral scientists on energy conservation, water conservation and recycling of solid waste. These concepts and their interrelations are introduced in the overview of the conceptual framework presented below. At the end of the paper the concepts are discussed in greater detail. We hope that such an interrelated network of concepts will facilitate conceptual comparisons across studies and, thereby, accelerate the cumulation of knowledge from the work of different investigators. VER VIEW Overview of Approaches to Encouraging Conservation BehaviorApproaches in the first group are aimed at promoting pro-conservation attitudes and primarily have called upon techniques of persuasive communication. These techniques include appeals to the fear of disastrous consequences of shortages (of energy, water, etc.), and relate conservation to the achievement of valued goals such as personal and family security, national welfare, and the preservation of natural resources for the use of the earth's future inhabitants. As yet, little use has been made of other attitude change techniques such as involvement in role playing, induction of counter-attitudinal behavior, providing personal experiences with conservation programs, rewarding expressions of pro-conservation attitudes, etc. Many of these techniques require captive audiences such as students and, until conservation education becomes a more prominent part of childrearing and formal schooling, they will continue to be used infrequently.Approaches in the second category have the objective of eliciting conservation actions from persons who are already attitudinally disposed to such actions. These efforts take three main directions. One is to signal the individual that a given behavior is conservation-related. A second is to make pro-conservation attitudes more salient in situations in which there is a potential for conservation actions. T h e third is to lead individuals to link or "couple" actions that have conservation implications to their pro-conservation attitudes.Approaches in the third category encourage reduced consumption by means unrelated to pro-conservation attitudes. Thus, to the extent they are successful, they produce savings of scarce resources that, for the saver, have no relation to conservation

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