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Student’s research helps
promote eco-friendly behaviour
By Amber McMillan
While you’re out completing your holiday shopping this year, you could also be setting an example that encourages others to practise eco-friendly behaviour.
Recent research by UVic psychology graduate student Reuven Sussman proves that setting a good example works. Sussman’s research has shown that people in restaurants or shopping mall food courts are far more likely to compost when they see others around them doing the same. A bonus result is that, partly due to Sussman’s study, management at Mayfair Shopping Centre—one location of his experiment—are looking into changing and improving their waste-management procedures.
On Nov. 26, Sussman successfully defended his master’s thesis—Effectiveness of Prompts and Models on Food Composting by Restaurant Patrons—completed under the supervision of leading environmental psychologist Dr. Robert Gifford with funding from the Sara Spencer Foundation and composting facilities donated by reFUSE, a local commercial composting facility.
Sussman’s research began in UVic’s Vertigo Nightclub in the SUB building, where he observed people for one week, using a sign over a bin providing composting directions to customers. Later, he improved the sign and introduced extra tabletop signs with general messages for a second week and the percentage of people who followed the sign directions and composted increased 13–21 per cent.
On the third week, Sussman introduced a behavioral model, someone who sat near the compost as a visual demonstrator and visibly composted material. Then finally, on the fourth week, he added two models who interacted with each other, asked each other questions about the composting and then composted their waste. This final phase of the experiment proved the most successful, increasing the percentage of people who composted from 24-43 per cent of all customers.
For his master’s thesis project, Sussman drew from his original experiment, conducting his research over a single day in each of three community locations: the Beacon Drive In patio, Mayfair Shopping Centre food court, and the Hillside Centre food court. The results showed that in all three locations people were more likely to compost when they saw others doing it.
“As it turns out, seeing others behave pro-environmentally in front of you makes it more likely that you will do so as well,” says Sussman. “So remember, when you practise environmentally friendly behaviour in public, you’re creating a double benefit: you’re doing your part and also encouraging others by example to follow your lead.”
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