Testing an Integrative Model of the Social-Psychological Drivers of Participation in Relational Organizing

测试参与关系组织的社会心理驱动因素的综合模型

• 批准号: 2117974
• 负责人: Megan Jones
• 金额: $ 51.87万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-15 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2117974&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Testing; Integrative; Model; Social; Psychological

Relational organizing is a promising approach for achieving rapid, widespread community action for environmental conservation and other pro-social outcomes. Relational organizing involves enlisting motivated volunteers to share information about and encourage others they know to engage in a desired behavior. It is effective because it harnesses the power of people’s social connections, which people are generally motivated to maintain, to help spread new information and create new social norms. Although a growing number of studies have documented the effectiveness of relational organizing, a key challenge to implementing this approach is scaling it up, or encouraging a larger number of individuals to reach out to others they know. Studies find that most people who are committed to participating in a conservation behavior in their personal lives are reluctant to reach out to others about this behavior. Preliminary research suggests this may be a result of specific social-psychological barriers that prevent people from reaching out to others, such as their fear of being judged negatively. This project examines these barriers through public surveys, and develops and experimentally tests messaging approaches for reducing these barriers to encourage greater participation in relational organizing. To do so, the researchers partner with an international NGO, local government, and private industry to focus on a context with immense environmental, health, and animal welfare impacts: relational organizing to reduce meat consumption. The team develops practical handbooks and webinars summarizing the findings to inform the efforts of numerous organizations seeking to harness the power of relational organizing for pro-social behavior. Scaling up the relational organizing approach requires understanding, synthesizing, and developing interventions to address the most salient factors driving people’s willingness to reach out to others. The researchers advance a theoretical model of the social-psychological drivers of participation in relational organizing. The model proposes that participation in relational organizing is influenced by: 1) personal norms about reaching out to others; 2) activist social identity; 3) attitudes towards and past engagement in the target behavior; 4) perceptions of others’ beliefs about the issue and about reaching out to others about the issue; and 5) beliefs about the efficacy of relational organizing. To test this model, the team first conducts surveys to examine the explanatory power of the model and identify the social-psychological variables that are most associated with participation in relational organizing for reducing meat consumption. The results of the surveys inform the development of messaging interventions to address the most important social-psychological factors. The team tests the effectiveness of the messaging interventions at enhancing relational organizing for reducing meat consumption first through online experiments and then through field experiments in collaboration with an international NGO, local government, and private sector partners. In the field experiments, they track vouchers for meatless meals that respondents can give to others as indicators of effective relational organizing. The research addresses three gaps in the literature on pro-environmental and pro-social behavior. First, most studies have focused on motivating personal-sphere behaviors, rather than more collective behaviors that involve engaging with others. The team addresses this gap through the focus on motivating individuals to reach out to others to facilitate relational organizing. Second, there is a lack of understanding of the diversity and relative importance of social-psychological factors influencing whether people reach out to others in their social network. This gap is addressed through the development and testing of the theoretical model. Finally, few studies have tested the impacts of theory-based interventions on real-world indicators of conservation behavior, particularly on collective behaviors related to biodiversity conservation and food choices. This project addresses this gap through a field experiment that implements a real-world relational organizing campaign.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

关系组织是实现环境保护和其他有利于社会的结果的快速、广泛的社区行动的一种有前途的方法。关系型组织包括招募有动力的志愿者来分享他们认识的其他人的信息，并鼓励他们参与到期望的行为中。它之所以有效，是因为它利用了人们普遍有动力保持的社会关系的力量，帮助传播新信息和创建新的社会规范。尽管越来越多的研究证明了关系组织的有效性，但实施这一方法的一个关键挑战是扩大规模，或鼓励更多的人向他们认识的其他人伸出援手。研究发现，大多数致力于在个人生活中参与保护行为的人不愿就这种行为向他人伸出援手。初步研究表明，这可能是特定的社会心理障碍的结果，这些障碍阻止了人们与他人接触，比如他们害怕被负面评价。该项目通过公共调查检查这些障碍，并开发和实验测试减少这些障碍的消息传递方法，以鼓励更多地参与关系组织。为此，研究人员与国际非政府组织、当地政府和私营行业合作，专注于对环境、健康和动物福利产生巨大影响的背景：减少肉类消费的关系组织。该团队开发了实用手册和网络研讨会，总结这些发现，为寻求利用关系组织的力量进行亲社会行为的众多组织的努力提供信息。扩大关系组织方法需要理解、综合和开发干预措施，以解决推动人们愿意与他人接触的最显著因素。研究人员提出了参与关系组织的社会心理驱动因素的理论模型。该模型提出，关系组织的参与受到以下因素的影响：1)联系他人的个人规范；2)激进主义的社会认同；3)对目标行为的态度和过去的参与；4)他人对问题的看法和对问题的接触的看法；5)对关系组织的有效性的信念。为了测试这一模型，该团队首先进行调查，以检查该模型的解释能力，并确定与参与关系组织以减少肉类消费最相关的社会心理变量。调查结果为制定信息干预措施提供了信息，以解决最重要的社会心理因素。该团队首先通过在线实验，然后通过与国际非政府组织、地方政府和私营部门合作伙伴的实地实验，测试了消息传递干预措施在加强减少肉类消费的关系组织方面的有效性。在实地实验中，他们追踪了受访者可以给其他人的无肉餐券，作为有效关系组织的指标。这项研究解决了关于亲环境和亲社会行为的文献中的三个空白。首先，大多数研究都专注于激励个人领域的行为，而不是更多涉及与他人互动的集体行为。该团队通过专注于激励个人与他人接触来促进关系组织来解决这一差距。其次，缺乏对影响人们是否在其社会网络中与他人接触的社会心理因素的多样性和相对重要性的了解。这一差距是通过开发和测试理论模型来解决的。最后，很少有研究测试基于理论的干预措施对保护行为的现实世界指标的影响，特别是对与生物多样性保护和食物选择有关的集体行为的影响。该项目通过实施真实世界关系组织活动的实地试验来解决这一差距。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。