Comments on: Washington Post: Social Factors More Persuasive than Facts

By: mehnaz ruhimbaccus

mehnaz ruhimbaccus — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:16:30 +0000

notes am demanding is not on the same form its different

By: KR Young

KR Young — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:47:33 +0000

I’ve found it much more persuasive to talk about the postive of a behavior and not the negatives. For example, it is a good thing to conserve water and not it is a bad thing not to. Seems so simple yet I continually see our messages leaning towards the negative and pitting individuals against themselves and others. The US is basically a guilt driven society and not a shame society. I won’t argue whether that is how it should be, but it is the way that it is, for now.

By: Jennifer Browning

Jennifer Browning — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:12:53 +0000

There was another great study done that looked at the most persuasive message for encouraging people in hotel rooms not to have their sheets and towels changed everyday. By far the most effective approach was the message that said something like “most people that stay in this hotel do not have their sheets and towels changed everyday.” The environmental messages about water conservation etc… lagged way behind the “social norm” message.
Look at the fertilizer companies. That’s the approach they use – “make sure you are not the only person on your block with a bad lawn” (ie it must be green and weed free)
At Biodiversity Project we are going to be experimenting with this type of technique with a leaf campaign. We are trying to get people to compost their leaves or just mow them with the grass and leave them on their lawn. Our approach is going to be along the lines of “don’t be the neighbor with all the leaf bags piled up in your from yard.”
We will see how it works, but we are definately using the social norms approach to messaging.