Designing behaviourally informed policies for land stewardship: A new paradigm

This paper argues the case for a new approach to the stewardship of land resources that uses behavioural science theory to support the design and application of policies that facilitate changes in behaviour by those who develop policy and the farmers who implement it. Current approaches have: focused on legally-based expert system; and have been devised by national and international bureaucracies with little or no knowledge of how land owners and managers are motivated, and how they think, behave and operate as stewards of their natural resources. A review of current approaches from the social scientific literature is provided, with a particular focus on principles from social psychology. This is followed by an examination of how these principles can be applied to influence behaviour related to land restoration and soil conservation. Examples of the problems with traditional approaches and the evolution of new approaches with full engagement of farmers as the delivery agents are provided from within the European Union, Iceland and Scotland. In the light of these examples and emerging thinking in other parts of the world, the paper sets out the basis for a new approach based on behavioural science theory and application, reinforcing the arguments already made in the literature for a social license for farming

Agree to Disagree: A Practical Guide to Conducting Survey Research in Environmental Psychology

Surveys are a popular method of collecting self-report data on individuals' values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. They are commonly used by politicians to guide campaign strategies, by governments to set policy agendas and evaluate program effectiveness, and by marketeers to identity markets for new or existing products. Surveys are also an important research tool in many areas of psychology, including environmental psychology. Indeed, a quick perusal of recent articles in the Journal of Environmental Psychology and Environment and Behavior, the two flagship journals of the discipline, suggests that environmental psychologists are embracing survey methodology like never before

Data from: Increasing belief but issue fatigue: changes in Australian Household Climate Change Segments between 2011 and 2016

We applied the segmentation methodology developed by Leiserowitz, Maibach, and Roser-Renouf (2009) to national Australian samples collected in 2011 (n=1927) and 2016 (n=2503). In both samples we identified six Australian household segments which we labelled alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful and dismissive. Between the two periods, we found the proportion of households in the alarmed and concerned segments was stable; however there was a decrease (28% to 20%) in the proportion of households in the doubtful and dismissive segments and an increase (27% to 33%) in the cautious and disengaged segments. We found that a greater proportion of households have personally experienced climate change, and were more likely to believe in human causation and believe that there is a scientific consensus about the issue. However, there was evidence of issue fatigue. Households were less likely to report that they had thought about climate change or talked about it with their friends in 2016 relative to 2011. They were also less likely to pursue certain climate friendly behaviours or reward or punish companies for their climate behaviours. These findings suggest a need to motivate households to maintain efforts to mitigate climate change, particularly the cautious and disengaged households that are more amenable to changing their views about this issue

Born to roam? Surveying cat owners in Tasmania, Australia, to identify the drivers and barriers to cat containment

Free-roaming domestic cats, 'Felis catus', are a major public nuisance in neighbourhoods across the world,and have been linked to biodiversity loss and a host of community health problems. Owners who let their cats roam, also place their cats at risk of serious injury. One management strategy that is gaining considerable support involves encouraging cat owners to contain their pets within their property. Contemporary behaviour change models highlight the importance of identifying drivers and barriers that encourage and discourage target behaviours such as cat containment. Results from a random dial phone survey of 356 cat owners in northern Tasmania identified four distinct cat containment profiles: owners who contained their cat all the time, owners who only contained their cat at night, owners who sporadically contained their cat with no set routine, and owners who made no attempt to contain their pet. Our results indicated that cat-owners' decisions to contain or not contain their cats were guided by a range of factors including owners' beliefs about their ability to implement an effective containment strategy and their views about the physical and psychological needs of their cats. The results are discussed in terms of improving the behavioural effectiveness of cat containment interventions by selecting appropriate behavioural change tools for the identified drivers and barriers, and developing targeted engagement strategies and messaging

Can community-based governance strengthen citizenship in support of climate change adaptation? Testing insights from Self-Determination Theory

Motivation plays a powerful role in guiding human decision-making and behaviour, including adaptation to climate change. This study aimed to determine whether community-based governance would increase behavioural support, in the form of donation behaviour, for a climate change adaptation trust fund. A sample of 548 Australians was randomly assigned to view one of two governance scenarios: (1) a community-based scenario in which community members were afforded a high level of autonomy in designing and allocating funding within a trust fund to help their community adapt to climate change, or (2) a government-centred scenario in which decision making regarding the trust fund remained with government officials. Path analysis revealed that the community-based scenario produced significantly higher levels of perceived autonomy support within the study's participants. High levels of perceived autonomy support predicted higher levels of autonomous motivation (indicating stronger citizenship) and lower levels of amotivation, a motivational pattern, which, in turn, predicted greater willingness to donate to the climate change adaptation trust. Results are interpreted in terms of Self-Determination Theory and Motivational Crowding Theory

Facilitating climate change adaptation and engagement by understanding risks and climate behaviours: An assessment of future sea-level rise risks and climate change community perceptions in Fiji

This PhD project aims to extend climate change adaptation research by understanding the physical exposure of a place and the perceptions of the people occupying that space. There is scientific consensus that climate change will amplify existing environmental risks and have unequal impacts on human societies worldwide. The people living in small island developing states (SIDS) are at the frontline of the impacts of climate change due to high levels of exposure and low adaptive capacity. Using data from recent fieldwork, this study assesses the exposure and perceptions of people living in Labasa (a coastal-deltaic rural-urban area developed on a flood plain) in northern Fiji in the South Pacific. Even though risks associated with future sea level rise (SLR) are generally recognised for coastal areas, risks specific to certain landforms, such as river deltas, are understudied. This study provides an assessment of future risks from global SLR and storm surges under SLR in the Labasa Delta. The inundation maps produced through the risk assessment show that both the natural (vegetation and hydrological network) and the built (roads, communities, and infrastructure) environments in the river delta are at inundation risk from future SLR. Despite growing behavioural and attitudinal data on climate change in developed countries, little is known about the determinants of climate behaviours in developing countries. The second main aim of the current study is to provide the first set of representative psychological and behavioural data for the Pacific Islands region with tested hypothesised relationships. To this end, a survey of climate change perceptions amongst a national representative Fijian sample (N = 420), derived through random sampling was conducted throughout the study area. The survey collected both demographic (age, gender, education, employment, and land tenure) and psychological (knowledge, information, risk perception, self-efficacy) data, and investigated the relationship between these variables and climate change adaptation behavioural intentions. As hypothesised, multiple regression analyses identified affective associations, psychological proximity, flood experience, risk perceptions, and self-efficacy as determinants of pro-climate behaviours in Fiji. The results also found a greater engagement with climate change amongst racial majorities (iTaukei), males, and educated people. The findings did not support the hypothesis that increasing objective knowledge, belief, and trust in information sources determines climate behaviours. Although relationships existed between objective knowledge, belief, trust, and the behavioural intention variables, these came out as non-significant predictors. Overall, these results contribute to global research on climate change adaptation. By examining two important aspects - the likely inundation in the Labasa delta because of sea level rise and the perceptions of people in the Labasa area of climate change, the project fills a significant recognised research gap on islands. Previous climate change studies on islands have neither focused on local impacts in peripheral locations, nor looked at people's perceptions in such vulnerable places. The results of this research project provide a baseline of perceptions and vulnerabilities for islands that can aid in the design of future adaptation and risk communication strategies for vulnerable communities in Fiji and the wider Asia-Pacific region. It is expected that the results will offer stakeholders evidence-based advice and important insights on how to make climate change adaptation efforts more sustainable and community-inclusive than current practice

Behaviourally Effective Communications for Invasive Animals Management: A Practical Guide

The Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) has developed an impressive set of technologies and recommended best practices for managing and controlling invasive pests. But these proposed solutions will fail unless the public is sufficiently motivated and empowered to change behaviours and adopt new approaches. Changing behaviour, and sustaining these changes over time, is a difficult process. Educating the public about the negative impacts of invasive animals and providing information about control strategies is rarely enough

Applying behavioral theories to invasive animal management: Towards an integrative framework

Invasive species wreak an estimated $1.4 trillion in damages globally, each year. To have any hope of reducing this damage, best-practice control strategies must incorporate behavior change interventions. Traditional interventions, based on the 'knowledge-transfer' model, assume that if land managers are properly educated about risks and strategies, they will develop supportive attitudes and implement appropriate control strategies. However, the social sciences have produced a large number of behavioral models and frameworks that demonstrate that knowledge transfer, by itself, fails to change behavior. The challenge then lies in knowing which behavioral model to choose, and when, from a potentially overwhelming 'universe'. In this paper, we review nine behavior theories relevant to invasive species management. We then introduce the 'Behavior Change Wheel' as a tool for integrating these theories into a single practical framework. This framework links drivers of and barriers to behavior change with intervention strategies and policies, in what we consider, from an applied perspective, to be an important advance

Landholder adoption of low emission agricultural practices: A profiling approach

Agriculture is the second largest source of greenhouse gases emissions in Australia. Any substantial reduction in national emissions will require behavior changes within the farming community. This study aimed to identify the primary psychological drivers and barriers associated with the adoption of low emission agricultural practices (LEAP) in a sample of 551 Australian farmers (mean age = 51.40 years; SD = 11.99). Multiple regression analysis revealed that farmers were more likely to adopt LEAP if they: perceived a clear financial benefit for such practices, believed they possessed the relevant knowledge and skill, were future oriented, and exhibited low levels of environmental apathy. Latent profile analysis categorized the sample of farmers into four distinct segments: Non-Green Dismissive (11%), Uncommitted (57%), Green Adopters (20%) and Profit-Driven Adopters (12%). Both Green and Profit-Driven adopters engaged in more LEAP than members of the Uncommitted and Non-Green Dismissive segments. Our results indicate that unique combinations of psychological drivers and barriers may influence LEAP adoption in each segment. This information can be used to inform the development of segment-specific messaging and engagement strategies

Psychological Functioning of Partners of Australian Combat Veterans: Contribution of Veterans' PTSD Symptoms and Partners' Caregiving Distress

Previous research has found posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in combat veterans to be associated with impaired psychological functioning in their partners. However, little is known about possible mediators of this association. The present study investigated the mediational properties of six dimensions of the revised Partners of Veterans' Distress Scale (MacDonell, Marsh, Hine, & Bhullar, 2010). Participants were 181 female partners of Australian combat veterans, age ranging from 43 and 83 years (M= 60.47, SD= 4.96), who completed measures assessing their caregiving distress levels, dyadic adjustment, mental health, and satisfaction with life. The combat veterans also completed a scale measuring their PTSD symptoms. Our results indicated that higher scores of veterans' PTSD were associated with lower levels of dyadic adjustment, mental health, and satisfaction with life in their partners. Partners reported that distress related to exhaustion and intimacy problems significantly mediated the relationship between veterans' PTSD symptoms and their partners' satisfaction with life, whereas partners' distress associated with intimacy problems was the sole significant mediator for their dyadic adjustment, and exhaustion was the only significant mediator for partners' mental health. Implications for programmes designed to address the significant needs of the partners of combat veterans are discussed