This study seems to play at the interface of verbal and nonverbal behavior. One question of interest is whether the most effective means of establishing pro-environment behavior is by “imparting knowledge.” There’s literature to indicate that nonverbal behavior does not often conform to the verbal behavior of others, but if one comes to say the things that others say in an “organic” fashion, that their nonverbal behavior follows. An example: Telling someone “You need to take shorter showers because water is a precious and limited resource” might be less effective than providing social reinforcers for verbal behavior closer to that target response.

Thoughts?

This is such an interesting topic and the presentation was very clear! Do you think if you looked at any other knowledge type (looking more at action related knowledge), that you would get different results?

This study was very interesting I am so surprised that you found a decrease in pro- environmental behavior! good job! I wonder if this will still be the case with a larger sample size!

I think the idea that procedural knowledge could potentially decrease pro environmental behavior is really interesting but quite depressing. We need to be able to understand that these things are complicated without being reduced to paralysis. How do you think people should talk about the real complexities of climate change without inspiring inaction?

You guys picked a very interesting topic for your research project. I think there’s a lot to learn about why people act in ways that seem counterintuitive to what they know, and the consequences in regards to climate change specifically have enormous impacts. I thought the visuals for your presentation were beautiful, and you all did a great job speaking. Was reliability they only reason you all chose procedural knowledge as one of the main areas you focused on? I’m a little bit curious as to how you all chose effects and procedural knowledge, specifically, simply because they are two areas that I personally would have expected not to improve behaviors in this instance. For effects knowledge, I think most people area at least generally aware that there are significant consequences, and for procedural knowledge I would say that in my personal experience, most people will shut down when presented with anything that seems too complex or overwhelming if it’s not something that they’re interested in. I’d be curious to see if you’d have found a difference in behaviors if participants had been presented with action-related information, as I believe many people are more likely to incorporate actions that don’t require significant amounts of thought or effort. Thanks so much for your presentation, I thought you all did a great job and I thought your presentation was super interesting!

Great presentation! Your study certainly provides important findings, and I think that recent information about how much of climate change large companies are responsible for makes individuals feel like their pro-environmental efforts are insignificant. Perhaps that is something that future research could investigate as well as how to promote and discuss pro-environmental behavior. Lily, in your section you discussed why you all chose to focus on effects and procedural knowledge, did you find research to support focusing on only these two parts? Overall, great job explaining your study and your findings!

Very interesting study and an important topic! It would be nice to look at lack of environmental friendly education within K-12 education.