PSY 400 Week 2 Attitudes and Persuasion Example

Fewer Sprinklers in Tucson: Attitudes, Persuasion and Social Norms in a Water Conservation Campaign

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

PSY/400: Social Psychology

Week 2 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The utility, campaign and figures are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources listed.

Attitudes are evaluations of people, objects and ideas, and persuasion is the effort to change them. But the goal of most campaigns is not a changed opinion; it is changed behavior. This paper applies research on attitudes, persuasion, social norms and dissonance to a water utility's summer conservation campaign.

The Campaign

Rachel Ortiz manages communications for a water utility serving a growing area around Tucson, Arizona. Drought conditions have prompted a goal of reducing summer outdoor water use by ten percent. A survey shows that eighty percent of residents agree that conserving water is important. Yet meter data show that many households water lawns and gardens at midday, when evaporation is highest, and outdoor use rose last summer.

Attitudes and the Gap to Behavior

Attitudes have affective, behavioral and cognitive components: how people feel about something, how they tend to act toward it and what they believe about it. Residents' attitudes toward conservation are positive but general. Attitudes predict behavior best when they are specific to the behavior, strong, easily brought to mind and when situational barriers are low. A general belief that "conservation is important" is weakly tied to the specific act of resetting a sprinkler timer, which requires knowledge, effort and remembering. The campaign must therefore target specific behaviors and remove barriers.

Two Routes to Persuasion

Petty et al. (1981) had college students read a message advocating a new comprehensive exam requirement, varying whether the exam would take effect next year, affecting them, or years later, and whether the arguments were strong or weak and the source expert or not. When the issue was personally relevant, students were persuaded mainly by argument quality. When it was not, they were swayed more by the expertise of the source. The study supported the idea that people take a central route, thinking carefully about arguments, when motivated, and a peripheral route, relying on cues, when not.

For Rachel, residents vary in involvement. Gardeners and homeowners with high bills are motivated; renters and casual users are not. The campaign will offer strong, specific arguments to the engaged group, such as watering-schedule guides showing savings on a typical bill, and simple cues to others, such as a respected local horticulturist recommending early-morning watering.

Social Norms and the Backfire Problem

Schultz et al. (2007) left messages on residents' doors showing how much electricity their household used compared with the neighborhood average. Households above the average reduced use, but those below the average increased it, drifting toward the norm. When the reports added a smiling icon for households below the average and a frowning icon for those above it, the increase among low users disappeared while high users still reduced.

Rachel's team planned to send each household a report comparing its summer water use with the neighborhood average. Based on this research, the reports will include approval for low users, a simple message of thanks and a positive symbol, alongside tips for high users, to avoid a backfire effect.

Telling a careful household that its neighbors use more water is, without a word of approval, an invitation to use more.

Dissonance and Commitment

Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) had students perform boring tasks and then paid them either one dollar or twenty dollars to tell the next participant the tasks were enjoyable. Those paid one dollar later rated the tasks as more enjoyable than those paid twenty. With little external justification for the lie, the one-dollar group reduced their discomfort by changing their attitude. The study founded research on cognitive dissonance, the tension between inconsistent cognitions or between attitudes and actions.

The campaign can use dissonance constructively. Residents who sign a short, public pledge to water only before eight in the morning, with a yard sign to display, create a commitment. Watering at midday afterward would conflict with their stated position, and the small, voluntary nature of the pledge, rather than a large reward, encourages them to internalize it.

Choosing the Messenger

Source matters most on the peripheral route. A message from the utility itself may be dismissed as self-serving, while the same advice from a well-known local nursery owner, a neighbor who cut her bill by a third or a high school science class that measured evaporation in their own yards may carry more weight. Similar, trusted messengers also strengthen the sense that conservation is what people like the audience actually do, which reinforces the norm message.

Timing and Repetition

Attitudes that are easy to bring to mind guide behavior more reliably. Brief reminders timed to the moment of action, such as a text message on the first hot weekend in May and a note on the bill when timers usually need resetting, keep the specific attitude accessible when the decision is made.

Removing Barriers

Persuasion alone may not be enough. The utility will offer free sprinkler-timer resets by volunteers and rebates for drip irrigation, making the desired behavior easy. Research consistently shows that convenience narrows the gap between intention and action.

Ethical Considerations

Persuasion carries ethical obligations. The campaign's claims must be accurate, norm comparisons must use real data and pledges must be voluntary. Public displays should not shame households that cannot participate, such as those with medical needs for certain landscaping.

Measuring Success

Success will be measured with meter data rather than surveys, comparing summer outdoor use against the previous year and against similar utilities. Households receiving norm reports with approval will be compared with a randomly selected group receiving standard bills, providing evidence of the reports' effect. Pledge signers' use will be tracked to test the commitment step.

Conclusion

Residents of Rachel's service area already favor conservation, but general attitudes do not change specific behavior on their own. Research on the routes to persuasion guides messages for engaged and casual audiences, research on norm feedback prevents a backfire among low users and dissonance research supports a public pledge. Removing barriers and measuring meter data complete a campaign designed to change behavior, not just opinions.

References

Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58(2), 203-210. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0041593

Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Goldman, R. (1981). Personal involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(5), 847-855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.5.847

Schultz, P. W., Nolan, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2007). The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychological Science, 18(5), 429-434. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01917.x