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A Towel Less: Social Norms Enhance the Pro-Environmental Behavior in Hotels
The purpose of this experimental research study was to look for further evidence of how norms determine pro-environmental behavior. This is due to a previous study that showed normative appeals of engaging in a pleasant environmental behavior were in effect when supplemented by a particular descriptive norm. This research was done by investigating hotel towels’ use by guests (Reese, Loew & Steffgen, 2014). The findings were that the guests used fewer towels in the presence of norms than in standard environmentally friendly messages that were being conversed. The previous study results provided a basis for this research that demonstrates how social norms influence environmental behavior.
This study hypothesized that descriptive norms affect the individuals’ pro-environment and pro-social behavior. They affect how individuals litter the environment, whether they are involved in reducing waste and whether they reuse hotel towels, therefore, reducing the use of detergent and water resources (Reese et al., 2013). Hotel colleagues are mostly influenced by the descriptive norms when they are provided with general information about their colleagues.
The researcher investigated the research question using a population of 132 guests who had spent their vacation in the two hotels of Central European alpine resort. They collected data over six weeks. Guests were not aware of the research and that they were the research participants. They were only assigned to conditions that urged them to reuse towels printed on mountain panorama background signs and put on the washroom basin racks. They provided a message indicating that 75% of hotel guests reuse their towels. Also, the hotel attendants collected the research data without knowing the hypothesis to be tested. The experimenter had very close contact with the hotel management and the staff in charge of the rooms. The hotel guests were distributed equally to the conditions set across the rooms.
The results collected showed a positive finding of the research study. The data analysis showed a substantial impact of the towel-use message. The guests in specific room conditions used fewer towels than their colleagues in normal hotel condition. No difference was noticed between hotel condition and standard condition guests (Reese, Loew & Steffgen, 2014). The results demonstrated how powerful descriptive norms are in motivating people to participate in a pro-environmental behavior.
This research was good because it represents an essential step in using norms to control a pro-environmental behavior. The study ought to be repeated and improved to emphasize how the predictive power of norms can sustain people in a society. It should investigate the cultural background, economic, social, and environmental politics of the target variables. This would help design a large-scale intervention that will build on a culture of environmental behavior issues.
I am impressed by the study and am sure that it will help those practicing counseling psychology. It will shed light on how individuals perceive environmental changes based on descriptive norms. They will be able to apply their learned skills in real life and establish ways of measuring the degree to which humans perceive norms in particular ecosystems.
References
Reese, G., Loeschinger, D. C., Hamann, K., & Neubert, S. (2013). Sticker in the box! Object-person distance and descriptive norms as means to reduce waste. Ecopsychology, 5(2), 146-148.
Reese, G., Loew, K., & Steffgen, G. (2014). A towel less: Social norms enhance pro-environmental behavior in hotels. The Journal of Social Psychology, 154(2), 97-100.