Social Signals for Change: Examining the Role of Interpersonal Communication for Positive Ecological Progress

It perhaps goes without saying that society is collectively failing to meet the challenges posed by climate change and natural resource management, among other issues. Stagnated efforts may in part be driven by social processes that have been shown to shape whether, how, and to what extent individuals engage with environmental issues. In light of these stalled efforts to advance positive change, there is a pressing need to broaden our understanding of the normative processes that support the formation and maintenance of situation-appropriate social norms. In this dissertation, I integrate research from various fields to explore the role of interpersonal communication as an underutilized application of social influence and its capacity to support widespread cooperation. Specifically, I focus on what drives individuals to intentionally communicate with others across different domain-specific issues as well as examine existing norms concerning angling behavior and the use of increasingly popular mediums and channels of communication, such as photographs shared on social media. In Chapter II ( A Few Bad Apples or Rotten to the Core ), I reveal how variation in consumers\u27 attribution of blame, either to a handful of individuals or else corrupt corporate culture, drives responses to unethical environmental corporate wrongdoing, including engagement in word-of-mouth behavior (e.g., badmouthing). In Chapter III ( Peer Pressure on the Riverbank ), I show how efficacy beliefs and reputation concerns predict recreational anglers\u27 willingness to impose social sanctions on others\u27 inappropriate behavior. In Chapter IV ( Fishing for a Photograph ), I reveal how individuals misperceive prevailing norms relative to catch-and-release handling practices. Finally, in Chapter V ( Communicating for Conservation ), I provide a theoretical and empirical overview of interpersonal communication concerning environmental collective action problems, categorize the normative nature and implications of information exchanged during a conversation, and suggest application insights for conservation managers and practitioners. Collectively, these chapters shed light on some of the factors that shape individuals\u27 willingness to communicate with others and how social norms are created, maintained, and circulated through interpersonal interactions. This dissertation contains both previously published work (Chapters II, III are co-authored publications) and unpublished material (Chapter IV, Chapter V)

Beyond Green Consumerism: Uncovering the Motivations of Green Citizenship

Individual behavior change is a necessary condition for making a positive societal transition to a resource-constrained future. Because we live on a planet with finite resources, behavior change interventions need to move beyond creating “green consumers” and instead foster and support “green citizens.” Green consumerism has proven largely ineffective in curbing collective rates of consumption; despite improved efficiencies and green-and-lean social norms and policies, society’s aggregate resource and energy usage continues to climb. There is an urgent need to promote agency and self-sufficiency with regard to individual conservation behaviors, while simultaneously promoting mindfulness of collective impacts on the planet. Based on an analysis of results from a community-based survey (N=223) conducted in Southeastern Michigan, this article develops a profile of a green citizen and documents how it differs from that of a green consumer. Characteristics of green citizenship go beyond pro-environmental knowledge and attitudes and thoughtful consumer behavior. Green citizens hold a distinct psychological motivation from the frugal use of resources and demonstrate a connection to nature, compared to green consumers, who are motivated by helping others and identify with pro-environmental attitudes. The emerging profile of green citizens and their associated behaviors suggest a need for policy and community action initiatives that dramatically differ from those currently aimed at promoting green consumerism. A re-framing of environmental programs, away from consumerism and toward citizenship, may prove challenging. Deeply embedded in most current environmental efforts is a view of people as consumers who can be manipulated to make the correct decisions. The data reported here uncover mindful actors with power and agency. The article concludes by offering recommendations for policymakers, educators, and organizers to foster durable change in our communities.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138130/1/Guckian, De Young & Harbo (2017) Beyond green consumerism, MJS, 5, 1, 73-94.pdfDescription of Guckian, De Young & Harbo (2017) Beyond green consumerism, MJS, 5, 1, 73-94.pdf : Main articl

A Rooted University: Growing Resiliency, Community, and Engaged Food Citizens at the UM Campus Farm

In response to the recommendation from the Campus Sustainability Integrated Assessment of University of Michigan (2009), and the long-time vision of a core group of faculty and staff representing the Sustainable Food Initiative at the University of Michigan, the School of Natural Resources and Environment’s Sustainable Food Program 2012-2013 Master’s Project Team established the University of Michigan Sustainable Food Program (UMSFP) and the University of Michigan Campus Farm. Since its inception, UMSFP has remained an entirely student-driven initiative. A leadership team of four graduate students and four undergraduate students is responsible for program oversight and makes all of the core decisions surrounding its administration. In January 2013, UMSFP Program Manager, Emily Canosa, was hired to provide mentorship and support to the student leaders and to aid in the continuity to the program, as student leadership turns over each year. Emily is the only non-student member involved in the UMSFP leadership meetings. UMSFP also has an advisory board comprised of the students on the UMSFP leadership team, faculty, and staff. The program has since blossomed into a community of 10 active member groups, each representing unique interests in sustainable food. One of these member groups, Friends of the Campus Farm, along with student interns hired by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, are responsible for directing and managing the Campus Farm, located at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. The Farm began as a pilot program in May 2012, and it grew to its full production space of two acres, with a quarter acre cultivated, in Summer 2013. The Campus Farm was founded with this threefold mission (Dengate et. al, 2013): 1. Develop responsible citizens and leaders by facilitating formal and informal education on sustainable food topics. 2. Strengthen communities through collaborative programming and outreach 3. Grow sustainable food that supports the well-being of people and the environmental at the University of Michigan and beyond In line with this mission, programming at the farm has flourished since the planting of the pilot plot in May 2012: • Students can buy produce on campus in the fall at MFarmers’ Markets and at UMSFP’s member group Student Food Co.’s bi-weekly produce table • University courses incorporate the farm into their curriculum and projects, racking up more than 600 hours of course contact annually • Friends of the Campus Farm schedules regular workdays and volunteer opportunities for upwards of forty loyal volunteers who donate over 1900 hours of their time to the Farm each year. • New students get acquainted with the farm during Welcome Week and orientations • Three hundred community members celebrate each year at the Harvest FestivalMaster of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106572/1/A Rooted University.pd

Assessing the impact of an online climate science community: The Early Career Climate Forum

Online science communities can serve as powerful platforms for advancing scientific knowledge, capacity, and outreach by increasing collaboration and information sharing among geographically distant peers, practitioners, and the public. Here, we examine the value and role of the Early Career Climate Forum (ECCF), a climate-focused online science community based in the United States dedicated to training and providing support to the next generation of climate scientists. In a survey of community users and contributors, we find that the ECCF played a unique role in providing users access to career resources as well as climate-related research and insights. Respondents also indicated that the ECCF provides them with a strong sense of community and a sense of hope for the future of climate science research. These findings highlight the importance of online science communities in shaping and supporting the next generation of scientists and practitioners working at the science-management interface on climate change issues

From absolution to action: Examining Americans’ reactions to high-profile corporate scandals

This project page contains the data files, measures, analysis code, and supplementary materials for Guckian et al., 2020, Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy. Citation: Guckian, M.L., Chapman, D.A., Lickel, B., & Markowitz, E.M. (in press). From absolution to action: Examining Americans' reactions to high-profile corporate scandals. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy. Abstract: When corporations behave inappropriately, for example by intentionally circumventing emissions regulation or jacking up the price of a life-saving drug, assessing and assigning culpability is both natural and necessary. Such ascriptions of blame influence how consumers perceive and engage with corporations in the wake of misconduct. In a nationally representative sample of American adults, we examined how people’s mental models of corporate wrongdoing influenced their awareness of and responses to a series of corporate scandals that broke between 2015-2017. Using a mixed effects modeling approach addressing both individual and scandal-level variability, our results revealed that subscribing to the belief that corporate scandals are the product of the corporate culture (as opposed to the actions of a “few bad apples” within an organization) amplified people’s awareness of, degree of concern about, and the probability of having taken action against transgressing corporations. The findings presented here highlight the importance of exploring consumers’ complex responses to corporate scandals, particularly for regulators and consumer advocates interested in leveraging public outcry to hold corporations responsible

A Corporate Scandal that Hits Close to Home: Examining Owners’ Responses to the Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Scandal

<p>The 2015 Volkswagen Group (VW) diesel emissions scandal has affected no group of individuals more directly than owners of the affected vehicles. Yet to date no research has examined in depth how owners have responded to the scandal. This includes not only what owners have already done or plan to do with their vehicles (e.g. repair, participate in the buyback programme) but also their interpersonal communicative actions (e.g. talking with other owners) and attitudinal reactions (e.g. perceptions of the VW-EPA settlement). We conducted two surveys—one prior to and one after a settlement was reached between VW and US regulators—to examine owners’ behavioural and attitudinal responses. Here we present descriptive, topline results from these surveys, which reveal relatively strong but heterogeneous owner engagement with the scandal. Owners report significant ambivalence about their own and VW’s mitigative options moving forward. Given the role owners will play in mitigating the environmental and health impacts of the scandal, understanding their responses is of critical importance.</p

Peer pressure on the riverbank: Assessing catch-and-release anglers' willingness to sanction others' (bad) behavior

Given the well-documented impacts of angler behavior on the biological fitness of angled and released fish, optimizing the conservation value of catch-and-release angling hinges on the extent to which anglers are willing to adopt recommended best practices and refrain from harmful ones. One potentially powerful mechanism underlying adoption of best practices is the social pressure anglers can apply to one another to enforce community norms and values. Past work in other domains demonstrates that forms of interpersonal communication—including social sanctioning—can foster context-appropriate social norms and increase cooperative behavior; yet to date, little research has examined these dynamics in the context of species conservation. We conducted in-person and online surveys to explore the role of social sanctioning in the context of an internationally renowned wild steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fishery in British Columbia, Canada. We investigated how diverse social-psychological and demographic factors influence anglers' past and future sanctioning propensity. Results highlight that perceived capacity to influence the angling practices of others and professed concerns about one's own reputation were strongly predictive of both past and future sanctioning. Furthermore, while anglers reported relatively low-levels of past sanctioning behavior, most anglers simultaneously expressed a strong desire to sanction others in the future. Identifying ways to increase the social desirability and visibility of sanctioning actions could assist resource managers in promoting adoption and maintenance of best practices. More broadly, our findings underscore a significant yet underappreciated role for wildlife users and enthusiasts in cultivating a shared conservation ethic to help ensure biological conservation

Digital fisheries data in the Internet age: Emerging tools for research and monitoring using online data in recreational fisheries

Recreational fisheries are diverse in scale, scope, and participation worldwide, constituting an important ecosystem service of marine and freshwater ecosystems. Management of these socio-ecological systems is challenged by monitoring gaps, stemming from difficulties engaging with participants, biased sampling, and insufficient resources to conduct biological or social surveys of fish and human populations. In the Internet age, online data have great potential to make a meaningful contribution to recreational fisheries research, monitoring, and management. Recreational fishers in some countries increasingly use social and other digital media to share their experiences with followers, with most data freely available to web scrapers that compile databases of text (e.g. tweets, status updates, comments), photos, videos and other media that contain information about spatiotemporal activity, sentiments towards catches/experiences, targeted and bycatch species, effort levels, and more. Although the future of recreational fisheries research, monitoring and management will likely involve more digital scraping, uptake is only just beginning and there are several challenges including tool availability/accessibility, sampling biases, and making findings relevant and usable to practitioners. Despite these challenges, we envision fisheries managers will increasingly turn towards online sources of fisheries data to supplement conventional methods. We challenge scientists to work towards continued method development and validation of various digital fisheries data tools and emphasize how biases from the online behaviour of users may complicate interpretations of these data for fisheries management

Digital fisheries data in the Internet age: Emerging tools for research and monitoring using online data in recreational fisheries

Recreational fisheries are diverse in scale, scope, and participation worldwide, constituting an important ecosystem service of marine and freshwater ecosystems. Management of these socio-ecological systems is challenged by monitoring gaps, stemming from difficulties engaging with participants, biased sampling, and insufficient resources to conduct biological or social surveys of fish and human populations. In the Internet age, online data have great potential to make a meaningful contribution to recreational fisheries research, monitoring, and management. Recreational fishers in some countries increasingly use social and other digital media to share their experiences with followers, with most data freely available to web scrapers that compile databases of text (e.g. tweets, status updates, comments), photos, videos and other media that contain information about spatiotemporal activity, sentiments towards catches/experiences, targeted and bycatch species, effort levels, and more. Although the future of recreational fisheries research, monitoring and management will likely involve more digital scraping, uptake is only just beginning and there are several challenges including tool availability/accessibility, sampling biases, and making findings relevant and usable to practitioners. Despite these challenges, we envision fisheries managers will increasingly turn towards online sources of fisheries data to supplement conventional methods. We challenge scientists to work towards continued method development and validation of various digital fisheries data tools and emphasize how biases from the online behaviour of users may complicate interpretations of these data for fisheries management