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14
Sep 21

Littering to Prevent Littering

I’m lucky enough to live in a beach community and, early each morning, I walk my dog along the beach before work. Although there are trash cans placed every 20 to 30 feet along the beach, there is always lots of litter – especially on Sunday and Monday mornings. On my walks, I watch as the maintenance crew works diligently each day, picking up all the litter from the day before. We’ve gotten to know each other quite well over the years and they tell me that they do this early in the morning to ensure that the beach is nice and clean before beachgoers come out for the day. I feel sorry for them that the task seems never-ending and that their beautiful work is always so unappreciated and gets messed up each day. I have often wondered what could be done to cause people to use the trash cans more and litter less. Who knew that the answer might be for the maintenance crew to not be quite so diligent in their litter collecting!

This week we learned that our individual choices and actions can have a huge impact on the physical environment and that, as individuals, we are often faced with social dilemmas that we have to make important choices about…even when we don’t realize how important our choices are (Gruman, Schneider & Coutts, 2017, p.354). I believe that littering is one of these social dilemmas. The short-term benefit to the litterer is immediate; they no longer have to carry the piece of trash around. The long-term cost to the environment is less tangible to the individual in the moment, less salient, making it relatively easy to choose to litter. However, there are long-term costs: when people leave litter on the beach or in the beach parking lot there is a high likelihood that the litter will end up in the ocean. Here it can affect dolphins, seals, and other marine life through entangling and trapping them or through them ingesting it. Litter in the ocean is also harmful to the environment. For instance, plastic trash is light and so floats on the surface of the ocean stopping the sunlight from getting into the ocean. Plastic also traps the sunlight which makes the surface of the ocean warmer. Both things will affect ocean ecosystems and our climate.

So, the question becomes; how to make non-littering more salient in the moment? Social norms are one of the big drivers of our behavior, telling us which behaviors are/aren’t acceptable (Gruman, Schneider & Coutts, 2017, p.81). As humans we are very motivated to be liked and approved of by others, we also use others’ behaviors to inform us of how we should behave in a situation. Focus Theory of Normative Conduct suggests that, in situations where several social norms are available at the same time, our behavior will most likely be influenced by the focal norm; the one which is most salient (Stok & de Ridder, 2019). It would follow, then, that, if the beach was strewn with litter, individuals would feel it acceptable to join in with this behavior. It would also make sense that, if the beach was kept pristine and did not have a single piece of litter on it, individuals would copy this behavior and not drop litter. Therefore, the work the maintenance crew does on the beach here each morning is valid, useful, and necessary.

Interestingly, in their studies, Reno, Cialdini, and Kallgren (1993) found that whilst a completely clear, litter-free area does lead to less littering, it is not as effective as when a social norm is made focal, drawing people’s attention to a non-littering norm. Their studies suggest that adopting one of the following behaviors would make beachgoers much less likely to litter. The first would be for the maintenance crew to leave a little litter on the beach during their early morning clean-up and only pick up that litter once beachgoers had arrived and could see them doing it. This is an injunctive norm; highlighting to beachgoers that littering is wrong and making this norm very salient in their minds. The second would be to tidy up the beach beautifully during their early morning clean-up and then, once beachgoers had arrived for the day, have someone deliberately drop a piece of trash somewhere prominent. This is a descriptive norm; it would draw attention to the fact that this action was unusual in this tidy environment, reminding people that most people don’t drop litter on the beach.

I found this really interesting and would love to help the maintenance crew out by suggesting they try one of these strategies. However, I can only imagine the looks of horror on their faces at the thought of not doing the best clean-up job possible, or – even worse – deliberately contributing to the littering problem. I’d also be happy to test it myself by going back down to the beach as beachgoers arrive and dropping a piece of trash on the crew’s beautiful sand. I think it would be a good intervention strategy but the personal cost to me – potentially losing my friendship with the crew – is too high. And so we come full circle; my individual choices and actions could potentially have a positive impact on the physical environment and yet every day I choose not to act because my personal reward for not acting is greater than my personal reward for acting.

References:

Gruman, J.A.,Schneider, F.W., & Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Reno, R.R, Cialdini, R.B, & Kallgren, C.A. (1993). The transsituational influence of social norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 110, 908.

Stok, F. M., & de Ridder, D. T. D. (2019). Chapter 7: The Focus Theory of Normative Conduct. In K. Sassenberg, & M. Vliek (Ed.). Social psychology in action: Evidence-based interventions from theory to practice (p. 96). essay, Springer.

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03
Feb 19

To Recycle or Not to Recycle?

Recycling, the solution to our landfill problems, or so we thought. “American recycling has stalled. And industry leaders warn that the situation is worse than it appears” (Davis, 2015). The problems started with having mixed recycling, an idea born in the 1990s in California, where anything recyclable goes in the bin and then somehow it is separated and reused (Davis, 2015). Unfortunately, with mixed recycling, and bigger bins, contamination has become a problem as people have started putting in as much garbage as they do recycling (Davis, 2015). This contamination has resulted in higher processing prices for recyclables, making it more cost effective to just dump the recycling in with the trash (Davis, 2015). Unfortunately, the contamination of recycling has affected more than just local recycling plants, it has affected the U.S.’s ability to export their waste to other countries as well.

China, one of the world’s largest importers of waste paper, used plastics, and scrap metal, made a decision last year to “tighten its standards for impurities in scrap bales” (Beitsch, 2019). Before the implementation of it’s new policy, China would accept bales with contamination levels between one and five percent, but now the standard is point five percent, a radical reduction (Beitsch, 2019). This change affects the cost of recycling, and this means that small towns must “scale back the types of recyclables they accept or start charging fees to cover the ballooning costs of their programs” (Beitsch, 2019). One town has had to start charging residents $50 to drop their recyclables off at the recycling center (Beitsch, 2019). This means that more plastics are put in the landfills, either because the recycling plant can not process it, or because people do not want to recycle due to the high costs.

Recycling may be less impactful on the environment, but “it is easier to adopt, and therefore is environmentally valuable” (Gifford, 2012, p. 297). This has made it an invaluable tool to help reduce our impact on the environment, but how do we fix the problems present in the recycling industry? In 1998, Schultz implemented an experimental intervention program in California to see if certain interventions would increase the amount people recycled (Gifford, 2012, p.307). Schultz discovered that people recycled more when they received individual feedback, information on one’s level of recycling compared with one’s past performance, or group feedback, information on one’s level of recycling compared to their neighborhood (Gifford, 2012, p. 307). Schultz even did a cost-benefit analysis at the end of his experimental intervention and determined that if the intervention was implemented citywide, the benefits of the program would outweigh the cost (Gifford, 2012, p. 307).

However, as Davis explains, increasing recycling is not necessarily beneficial as people are putting as much garbage as they are recyclables into the recycling bins (Davis, 2015). Maybe residents have good intensions, but a lack of education as to what is recyclable results in items such as shoes, Christmas lights, and garden hoses being put into recycling (Davis, 2015). Schultz’s experimental interventions have other applications than just increasing recycling though. Schultz based his experimental interventions on the idea of norms and highlighting the discrepancies between the norm and the actual behavior (Gifford, 2012, p. 307). A similar norm-based experimental intervention could be implemented to examine if feedback on individual performance might affect recycling behavior. If people stop putting garbage into their recycling, contamination would decrease allowing us to export our recycling to China which, in turn, would relieve the financial burden on small town recycling programs allowing them to start accepting more recyclables again.

 

References:

Beitsch, R. (2019, January 21). A move by China puts U.S. small-town recycling programs in the dumps. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-move-by-china-puts-us-small-town-recycling-programs-in-the-dumps/2019/01/18/6a043642-1825-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html?utm_term=.4eeb7797465d

Davis, A. C. (2015, June 20). American recycling is stalling, and the big blue bin is one reason why. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/american-recycling-is-stalling-and-the-big-blue-bin-is-one-reason-why/2015/06/20/914735e4-1610-11e5-9ddc-e3353542100c_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.22a3b926740f

Gifford R. (2012). Applying Social Psychology to the Environment. In F. W. Schneider, Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (pp. 297-322). Los Angeles: Sage.

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01
Mar 15

Human beings trying to be human and not humanesque

by Cynthia Roebuck

EYTAN_i_support_humanbeings

Did you know 1 in 1,000 to 1,500 children are born sexually ambiguous, and the practice of gender assignment is carried out by medical procedures at birth (Cummings, 2010, p. 148; Conway, 2006; Fausto-Sterling, 2000; Kessler, 1990; Dredger, 1998)? Dr. John Money in 1955 while working at John Hopkins began the practice of assigning gender at birth (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). He established the social norm for a child born sexually ambiguous to have her parents and doctors decide on his sex. Dr. Money’s theories proclaim a “gender gate” of neutrality that stays open till around the age of two, so the reality of gender can be constructed simply by raising the child as the sex assigned (Tischler, 2014, p. 76).

This forced identity with either male or female gender is arbitrary to the natural being of a human being.  The recognition of only male/female or straight/gay limits the depth of the intellect and creates a harmful social environment that can create constant dissonance for so many trying to fit into the role assigned.  It is this socially constructed reality that is in need of a revision.  It is this dimorphic view that has led us to look at the differences between male and female and not the similarities or variabilities between the sexes (Jhally, 2009).

There are many cultures around the world today having more than one gender including Germany with a birth certificate option of indeterminate (Chapel, 2013).  In this map, cultures around the planet are identified that recognize more than two forms of gender.

PBS Multigender Culture Map

Anthropological evidence also points to variations throughout time and space of two genders being present and recognized within global cultures (Puts, 2012). Today the North American Task Force on Intersex has endorsements from “the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Urological Association,  the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American College of Medical Genetics, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, the Society for Pediatric Urology, the Society for Fetal Urology, and the Society  of Genitourinary Reconstructive Surgeons” to name a few supporting the need to revamp the way sex is assigned at birth (Chase, 2008).

So, this is a challenge to all media to put forth the effort to give us positive representations of transgendered people, so we can begin to correct the stereotypical misrepresentation of so many.  Allow humanity to be expressed in all its wonderful shapes and hues and society will follow, because in our busy lives we often only associate with those we know.  Our social cues for interacting with those different from ourselves often are formed through media exposure, but the problem with this is there is no trial and error learning (Bandura, 2006).  Media presents a single symbolic representation, but when the representation is a stereotype, a segment of society can be marginalized through audiences developing their social cues from what they were exposed to in the media.  “In conclusion, transsexualism is strongly associated with the neurodevelopment of the brain…The condition has not been found to be overcome by contrary socialisation, nor by psychological or psychiatric treatments …” (GIRES, as cited in Conley, 2006).  It is a form of being human.

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-13-815641-X 01.

Chappell, B. (2013). Germany Offers Third Gender Option On Birth Certificates. National Public Radio. Retrieved 23 January 2015 from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/01/242366812/germany-offers-third-gender-option-on-birth-certificates.

Chase, C. & Aaronson, I. (2008). North American Task Force on Intersex Formed. Intersex Society of North America. Retrieved 6 February 2015 from http://www.isna.org/node/153.

Conway, L. (2006). Basic TG/TS/IS Information. University of Michigan. Retrieved 29 January 2015 from http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/TS.html.

Eytan, T. (2013). I SUPPORT photo. Rally for Transgender Equality 21176. Retrieved 19 February 2015 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/8603717323/in/photolist-fa1pU-pXLmc8-drbvg-qYFp6L-qLuCEj-j3yJ6-7yFqQP-7h4zDD-e7hipR-NHLdq-mEwTCq-q57aGY-8q94PM-e7hhqD-ndU2MK-6B1Ffb-e7nWHU-5tf2gA-e7nVXJ-e7nVzj-dvcDVd-7mTVrd-5otHqH-gdKmK-nDmSCD-o4o72q-63nebf-aBj7NW-7cARDf-78b16d-5ELJFo-5bWgco-pr3gB2-icYznx-qgEiNw-qxXh7P-qhQD8u-pQspnd-oV53Wc-pQp9vz-pwSY85-p8ZJga-nASJma-4xfLxD-nb7xLz-48uWw1-8TNgHF-paQGp3-nZxSty-nGqTr7.

Jhally, S. (2009). The Codes of Gender, Identity and Performance in Pop Culture. Media Educational Foundation. ISBN: 1-932869-39-5.

Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.) A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures. Independent Lens.  Retrieved 23 January 2015 from http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/two-spirits/map.html.

Puts, D.A. (2012). The Evolution of Human Sexuality, An Anthropological Perspective. p. 109-113. UNIT III Sexes and Genders. 2nd Edition. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, IO.

Tischler, H. (2014). Introduction to  Sociology. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN: 13-978-1-133-58805-5.

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12
Feb 15

Shhh, don’t say it: Climate Change

by Cynthia Roebuck

What a dilemma we find ourselves — shortages of water (USDA, 2014a), depletion of fish (main source of protein for billions) as a result of overfishing and ocean acidification (World Health Organization, n.d.), elimination of natural forests at alarming rates (Discovery, n.d.), large numbers of species on the critical endangered lists (IUCN, 2014), and land loss from rising sea levels and sinking lands (IPCC, 2008, p. 20).  These problems are not just in remote African villages or an island in the Philippines.  We are experiencing these tragedies here in the USA now, and it is irrefutably proven by thousands of global scientists working independently that human beings are largely to blame for the cause of these conditions through the excessive amounts of carbon input into the environment (IPCC, 2014).  It is also important to note the federal government made a firm stand on the recognition of climate change being a reality with the USDA (2014b) opening seven Climate Hubs for Risk Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change with two additional sub-hubs in the Southeast and Midwest to assist farmers and researchers to find ways to mitigate the changing environment.  Our Central Intelligence Agency as far back as 2009 has considered climate change as a national security issue, but all countries with resources do this also.

The problem is so vast and so serious that it should be considered a public health risk and interventions should be considered on this merit.  This is why the stages of change model that is usually used to address addictions may be able if applied to this problem help in sorting through the confusion of people’s addiction to behaviors that are harmful to the environment they live in, e.g. not recycling.  According to Lafreniere & Cramer (2012), the five stages are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance with each stage being interchangeable (p. 181).  This post only considers one pro and con example for each stage as it has been experienced in the USA with specific attention given to efforts at Pennsylvania State University (PSU).

The first stage is precontemplation; and, looking at the surrounding communities around University Park in Pennsylvania or any area in the USA, it can be realized not all communities have decided to be guided by scientific proof of the need for reducing individual household’s carbon footprint.  The second stage involves contemplating the problem and considering how to mitigate and adapt to these changes.  This contemplation is currently facilitated in American institutes brought about through drought that is so severe in eight states that specific areas were declared disaster areas last year (USDA, 2014a; USDA, 2014b).  Also prompting research and contemplation is the 80% reductions in oyster populations in Oregon and Washington (Barton, Hales, Waldbusser, Langdon & Feely, 2006), extreme weather causing devastation across the nation (New Jersey and New Orleans), and red tides at Florida beaches (Stein, 2014) to name a few specific areas of scientific research; but, there are also segments within society refusing to contemplate the future beyond their lifetime.  How do you reach this niche?  This is when contemplation needs to consider enacting penalties to bring about compliance, e.g. emission tests.  The third stage of this model is preparation.  This is when communities have made a commitment to lessen their carbon output; but, then, there are those industries that cannot or will not lessen their carbon release without sanctions.  The fourth stage is action.  This is happening now with new standards for electrical suppliers requiring an accountability for their carbon emissions.  It is also happening in national businesses developing national recycling programs.  But, without the right resources for implementing these programs some communities discontinue their environmental services of this nature, and some branches of a business will ignore the national policy.  How can you change this attitude?  A whole new set of schemas need to be introduced so that new social norms can be established.

This may be happening right now through Pennsylvania State University’s Sustainability Institute’s zero waste campaign conducted through the green team, Mobius, at the University Park campus (PSU, 2013).  This program has the possibility of fulfilling the fifth stage of the stages of change model — maintenance.

The reasoning for viewing Pennsylvania State University’s Sustainability Institute at having possible success in the maintenance stage is because the recycling program enacted on PSU’s University campus targets changing students’ behavior that may possibly change students’ social norms off of campus.  This is attempted through recycling and composting programs introduced on campus that utilize peripheral routes to persuasion through placing signs and recycle and compost bins in all university buildings.  Central routes to persuasion have also been developed through Mobius introducing sound reasoning and facts to students to help with an understanding of how a thrown out pizza box consumes energy.  This knowledge should help students comply with recycling to relieve dissonance that may occur when recycling is ignored, and it has potential for staying with the student when they graduate because of the years of practicing this routine while they are at school.

Of course, it cannot be known if Mobius’ sustainability efforts can alter social norm without a way to measure it.  But, we do know students at University Park are embracing recycling.  In 2013, PSU generated 14,204 tons of waste at University Park with 60% of it recycled, and it was 1,248 tons less than in 2012 (PSU, 2014a).  It should also be noted composting efforts implemented last year resulted in 850 tons of food waste being turned into 2,305 tons of mulch for campus grounds (PSU, 2014a).  This tells us Mobius is effective in the here and now at changing students’ behavior, but will students carry this behavior with them off of campus as their implicit attitude?

Given these points of its success, there needs to be evaluations to determine the effectiveness of Mobius’ platform in bringing about an attitude change.  This type of an evaluation will also provide quantitative data that other institutions can consider in creating programs of similar design.  Now is the time to do this.  It can be accomplished with administering a questionnaire to incoming freshman students’ to gauge their attitudes on recycling and energy consumption, and it does not have to involve costs of the whole student body.  It can be done with a good stratified sample of the student body.  Questionnaires should be completed at the beginning of incoming freshmen’s first semester, repeated each year before graduation, and ideally two years after graduation.  This could document if intrinsic attitudes will change when students interact with Mobius’ sustainability programs at University Park, and it can reveal what the length of time it takes to effect attitude with this approach.  But, the real test of Mobius’ effectiveness will be revealed in the administering of the same questionnaire two years after graduation to the same sample.  I believe because the students are immersed in an environment that considers recycling in all areas of professional and personal life during their four years on campus that it will have an impact on their implicit attitudes resulting in recycling and sustainability considerations becoming second nature.  But, we will have to wait to see for this, but we do know that it is effective in the here and now.  And, it is exciting to consider the large student body of international and rural American students taking these healthy practices home with them and changing the behaviors of their hometowns.

References

Barton, A., Hales, B., Waldbusser, G.F., Langdon, C. & Feely, R.A. (2006). The Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, shows negative correlation to naturally elevated carbon dioxide levels: Implications for near-term ocean acidification effects. Limnology Oceanographer, 57(3), 2012, 698-710. DOI: 10.4319/lo.2012.57.3.0698.

Central Intelligence Agency. (2009). CIA Opens Center on Climate Change and National Security. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/center-on-climate-change-and-national-security.html.

Discovery. (n.d.) Threats to Biodiversity. Curiosity, Discovery. Retrieved from http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/deforestation-biggest-threat-biodiversity.

IPCC. (2008). Chapter 2 Observed and projected changes in climate as they relate to water.  International Panel for Climate Change. Retrieved from https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_technical_papers.shtml

IPCC. (2014). Organization. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc.ch/organization/organization.shtml.

IUCN. (2014). International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Red List of threatened Species. Retrieved from http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/4967/0.

Lafreniera, K.D. & Cramer, K.M. (2015). Applying Social Psychology to Health, in Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. (2nd ed.) F.W. Schnedier, J.A. Gruman, & L.M. Coutts (Eds.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-1412976381.

Pennsylvania State University (2013). green.psu.edu. Retrieved from http://www.green.psu.edu/.

Pennsylvania State University. (2014a). Recycling and Waste Management. Retrieved online at: http://www.green.psu.edu/ or http://sustainability.psu.edu/live/faculty-researchers/recycling-waste-management/recycle#stats.

Stein, L. (2014). Massive red tide bloom washing off Florida’s Gulf of Mexico coast. Reuters. Retrieved 7 February 2015 from http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/07/us-usa-florida-redtide-idUSKBN0G72FG20140807.

USDA. (2014a). Disaster and Drought Information. United States Department of Agriculture.  Retrieved from http://usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=DISASTER_ASSISTANCE.CC.

USDA. (2014b). Office of the Chief Economist. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved from http://www.usda.gov/oce/climate_change/regional_hubs.htm.

World Health Organization. (n.d.). Global and regional food consumption patterns and trends. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/3_foodconsumption/en/index4.html.

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