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

关系组织是一种很有前途的方法，可以迅速、广泛地采取社区行动，促进环境保护和其他有利于社会的成果。关系组织包括招募有动机的志愿者分享信息，并鼓励他们认识的其他人参与期望的行为。它之所以有效，是因为它利用了人们的社会关系的力量，人们通常有动力保持这种关系，以帮助传播新信息，创造新的社会规范。尽管越来越多的研究证明了关系组织的有效性，但实施这种方法的一个关键挑战是扩大规模，或者鼓励更多的人接触他们认识的人。研究发现，大多数致力于在个人生活中参与保护行为的人都不愿意就这种行为与他人接触。初步研究表明，这可能是特定的社会心理障碍的结果，这些障碍阻止人们与他人接触，例如他们害怕被负面评价。该项目通过公众调查研究这些障碍，并开发和实验测试消息传递方法，以减少这些障碍，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，当地政府和私营企业合作，重点关注具有巨大环境，健康和动物福利影响的背景：关系组织以减少肉类消费。该团队开发了实用手册和网络研讨会，总结了研究结果，为众多寻求利用关系组织的力量促进亲社会行为的组织提供了信息。扩大关系组织方法需要理解、综合和制定干预措施，以解决推动人们愿意与他人接触的最突出因素。研究人员提出了一个理论模型的社会心理驱动参与关系组织。该模型提出，参与关系组织的影响：1）个人规范接触他人; 2）积极的社会身份; 3）对目标行为的态度和过去的参与; 4）对他人关于这个问题的信念和关于接触他人关于这个问题的看法; 5）关于关系组织功效的信念。为了测试这个模型，该团队首先进行调查，以检查模型的解释力，并确定与参与关系组织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传递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合作的实地实验，测试了信息传递干预措施在加强关系组织以减少肉类消费方面的有效性。在实地实验中，他们追踪受访者可以给他人的无肉餐代金券，作为有效关系组织的指标。该研究解决了亲环境和亲社会行为文献中的三个空白。首先，大多数研究都集中在激励个人领域的行为，而不是涉及与他人互动的集体行为。该团队通过专注于激励个人接触他人以促进关系组织来解决这一差距。其次，人们对影响人们是否在社交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缺乏了解。通过理论模型的开发和测试来解决这一差距。最后，很少有研究已经测试了基于理论的干预措施对现实世界的保护行为指标的影响，特别是与生物多样性保护和食物选择有关的集体行为。这个项目通过一个实地实验来解决这个差距，该实验实施了一个真实世界的关系组织活动。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.