Motivating relational organizing behavior for biodiversity conservation

Jones, Megan S.; Niemiec, Rebecca M.

doi:10.1111/csp2.12880

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Relational organizing is used in conservation that recognizes how people are more likely to adopt new behaviors and engage in conservation efforts when they feel a sense of community and shared purpose (Burn, 1991;Abrahamse and Steg, 2013). It involves intentionally building connections with people who have a shared interest and using these connections to encourage others to engage in conservation behaviors (Jones and Niemiec, 2023). In the Bow Valley, the WildSmart Trusted Messengers project is an example of relational organizing.…”

Section: Messaging Needs To Be Clear and Consistentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kananaskis country’s road to coexistence: exploring expert perceptions of roadside bear viewing and management strategies

Pumphrey,

Meletis

2023

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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In North America, bear viewing is becoming increasingly popular with visitors to parks and protected areas. In the face of heightened visitation pressures in parks, the phenomena of roadside bear viewing poses risks to humans and wildlife. A related challenge is the formation of “bear jams,” which is traffic congestion caused by people stopping or slowing down to view bears. Using Peter Lougheed Provincial Park (PLPP) in Kananaskis, Alberta, as a case study, we examined the gaps in our understanding of roadside bear viewing from a human dimensions approach. To gain insight into management strategies, risks, and observed human behavior associated with roadside bear viewing, semi-structured interviews (n=22) were conducted with expert participants, including park staff members, non-profit organization employees, and biologists. Responses emphasized the need for consistent messaging and better communication regarding respectful roadside bear viewing behaviors, and recommendations for specific forms and methods of communication. Results of this study indicate that a holistic and adaptive approach could mitigate roadside bear viewing risks while also balancing conservation and recreation goals. Among the key contributions of this study is its insight into roadside bear management and viewing from a social sciences and human dimensions perspective

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Section: Messaging Needs To Be Clear and Consistentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kananaskis country’s road to coexistence: exploring expert perceptions of roadside bear viewing and management strategies

Pumphrey,

Meletis

2023

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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“…Injunctive norms are a person's perceptions of how they should behave and descriptive norms are perceptions of how other people are behaving (Cialdini et al, 1990). Recent studies have found that social norms may be particularly important for motivating more collective actions (see Howell et al, 2015; Jones & Niemiec, 2023; Niemiec et al, 2019). However, other studies have not found normative interventions to be highly effective in motivating conservation behavior (see Berl et al, 2022; Byerly et al, 2019; Niemiec, Sekar, et al, 2020 as examples).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encouraging social diffusion of pro‐environmental behavior through online workshop‐based interventions

Champine,

Jones,

Niemiec

2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Motivating people to take environmentally friendly action, especially collective actions that promote greater social engagement, is important for addressing environmental issues like biodiversity loss. We conducted an online workshop‐based field experiment to target social‐psychological perceptions to motivate people to plant native plants and encourage others to do the same. To shift these perceptions, we added 13 microinterventions to half the workshops, including normative messaging, public commitment‐making, and providing feedback on the impact of reaching out to others. We used a voucher system to track real‐world behavior by partnering with native plant nurseries. Compared to an information‐only control workshop, our intervention workshops initially increased certain social‐psychological perceptions related to encouraging others to plant native plants. However, they did not change behaviors, or many perceptions, compared to control workshops. Additional exploratory analyses revealed differing patterns of behavioral perceptions 2 months after the workshops. Further research is needed that implements experimental methods and real‐world measures of conservation behavior to evaluate the impacts of theory‐based outreach tactics on collective actions.

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Who will encourage a sustainable diet? Understanding the psychological predictors of relational organizing

et al. 2023

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Why do (or do not) people encourage others in their social networks to adopt climate-friendly behaviors? Encouragement like this has been referred to as “relational organizing,” and can help scale up climate action across communities. Since relational organizing is a social behavior, it likely has its own specific barriers and motivations beyond what affects personal climate action. Food is a big part of our day-to-day lives and our relationships with people we care about. It also impacts the climate, ecosystems, animal welfare, and our own health. As such, people’s climate-friendly food choices provide an ideal case study to explore drivers of relational organizing. Using an online survey with two North American samples of motivated audiences (one US-wide animal advocacy community, N = 1166, and one environmentally focused community in Boulder, Colorado, N = 363), we sought to identify and categorize the social–psychological barriers to and drivers of relational organizing for climate-friendly food choices. Using exploratory factor analysis and predictive models, we found that self-efficacy in carrying out the personal behavior, response efficacy beliefs, supportive social norms, and personal aptitude in relational organizing (e.g., personal norms) predicted relational organizing action after the survey. People’s sense of personal obligation to engage in relational organizing (i.e., personal norms), beliefs that would make a difference to important causes (i.e. response efficacy), and social identity beliefs around activism were particularly important. We discuss how these findings can help inform interventions related to climate-friendly diets, and what this means more broadly for how relational organizing can support climate action.

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Motivating relational organizing behavior for biodiversity conservation

Cited by 8 publications

References 64 publications

Kananaskis country’s road to coexistence: exploring expert perceptions of roadside bear viewing and management strategies

Kananaskis country’s road to coexistence: exploring expert perceptions of roadside bear viewing and management strategies

Encouraging social diffusion of pro‐environmental behavior through online workshop‐based interventions

Who will encourage a sustainable diet? Understanding the psychological predictors of relational organizing

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