Approches décisionnelles et dilemmes sociaux: études empiriques et proposition d'un modèle intégratif

Ce travail porte sur la problématique des comportements collectifs pro-sociaux. Il s'agit de comportements tels que le don du sang ou la participation à la lutte contre le changement climatique, pour lesquels la contribution de nombreux individus est requise, alors même qu'ils ne bénéficieront pas directement des résultats de leur effort. Les caractéristiques de dilemme social de ces comportements font qu'ils sont particulièrement difficiles à promouvoir. Les résultats de cette thèse suggèrent que, du moins pour les comportements pro-environnementaux, il apparait primordial de générer un sentiment d'efficacité vis-à-vis de l'atteinte du but chez les personnes. Ceci n'est généralement pas le cas avec les campagnes actuelles faisant appel à des buts de niveau planétaire tel que "sauvez la planète"

Effet de l’amorçage du vieillissement sur l’effort mental

Cette recherche étudie l’effet du stéréotype du vieillissement sur la mobilisation d’effort chez les jeunes. L’hypothèse est la suivante : les participants amorcés avec le stéréotype du vieillissement vont percevoir la tâche comme plus difficile (selon le principe d’assimilation) que les participants amorcés avec des images de jeunes, et fournir des efforts en conséquences, à savoir beaucoup dans une tâche facile, et peu dans une tâche difficile (désengagement). L’effort est mesuré de manière physiologique (période de pré-éjection, fréquence cardiaque, pression sanguine) au cours d’une tâche d’arithmétique. Les résultats sont contraires aux hypothèses : les participants amorcés avec le concept âgé ont fait plus d’efforts dans la tâche difficile que dans la tâche facile (résultat sur la fréquence cardiaque) alors qu’un désengagement était prédit, et ils ont fait moins d’effort (se reflétant sur la pression sanguine) que les personnes amorcées avec les visages jeunes dans le niveau facile, ce qui suggère un effet de contraste plutôt que d’assimilation

Act local but don't think too global: The impact of ecological goal level on behavior

Growing awareness of humanity's impact on the environment raises the question of how best to encourage pro-environmental actions. Numerous campaigns have been created to convince people to adopt nvironmentally friendly everyday behaviors, with varying success. The difficulty may be due, at least in part, to the huge gap between these small individual actions and the high-level goals, such as “saving the planet,” often used as incentives. We tested this hypothesis via four experiments. Studies 1 and 2 showed that high-level goals were less effective than low-level goals in promoting paper- and energy-saving behaviors. Study 3 showed that high-level goals engender lower perceived outcome expectancy and higher perception of cumulative effort. Study 4 showed that outcome expectancy mediates the direct effect of goal level on intention

materials

This provides all the materials necessary to directly replicate each of the four studies reported in the paper "Act local but don't think too global: The impact of ecological goal level on behaviour

data

This includes all the data collected for the studies reported in the paper "Act local but don't think too global: The impact of ecological goal level on behaviour

Reduction of Precautionary Behaviour following Vaccination against COVID-19: A Test on a British Cohort

Background: There is a risk that people vaccinated against COVID-19 will drop or reduce their precautionary behaviours (i.e., a phenomenon of risk homeostasis). Our aim is to assess the occurrence of this effect in a cohort of UK participants who were interviewed 141 days before and 161 days after the start of the vaccination programme. Methods: Of the 765 people who could be followed up before and after the start of the programme and whose vaccination status was known, 178 had not received any injection and 583 were more or less advanced in the process (one vs. two doses since less vs. more than 14 days). The frequency of 14 precautionary behaviours was assessed at both times of measurement, as well as potential covariates (gender, age, comorbidities and history of COVID-19). Results: Controlling for covariates, we didn’t find more decrease in precautionary behaviours among vaccinated individuals, regardless of how far along they were in the process. Conclusion: The results observed in this sample show little risk for a massive change in behaviours among early vaccinated individuals. The pressure to adopt precautionary behaviours remains strong and probably prevents the emergence of a risk homeostasis effect

Fear appeals to promote better health behaviors: an investigation of potential mediators

Background: Fear appeals are widely used in health communication, despite conflicting views on their effectiveness. Unresolved issues include possible mediation mechanisms and the effect of defensive reactions aimed at controlling a perceived danger. Methods: The present study compared the impact of three versions of an existing online course on how to prevent noncommunicable diseases. Participants, recruited in South America via a crowdsourcing platform, were divided randomly between three versions of the course – ‘threat only’/‘threat plus coping information’/‘coping information plus threat’ (reverse order). We then asked them to complete a questionnaire measuring perceived efficacy, perceived threat, defensive reactions, and intention to change unhealthy behaviors. Results: Using a serial parallel mediation model to test the course's impact on our dependent variables did not reveal any significant differences between the three versions. Perceived efficacy was positively associated with intention to change behavior, as well as with lower suppression, lower reappraisal, and greater denial. Suppression was the only defensive reaction to be associated with intention to change behavior: greater suppression was linked to less intention to change. Conclusions: Our results open interesting perspectives for research into defensive reactions