Abstract
A humorous, an environmentally oriented and an authoritarian poster against littering were tested in a field experiment on their behavioural effectiveness. Corresponding slogans were placed on anti-littering posters designed for this study and used experimentally at four railway stations. The experimental design entailed 4 communication conditions including a control condition where no poster was presented. In each experimental run (N = 96), flyers were distributed for 30 minutes. The number of distributed flyers was counted, and the proportion of littered flyers was determined for each experimental run. It was found that the humorous and environmentally oriented posters achieved a reduction of 58% and 64%, respectively, in littering as compared with the control condition. The authoritarian poster was significantly less effective, but achieved a significant reduction of 25%. Considered together with some previous findings and theories, the results indicate that environmentally oriented and humorous anti-littering posters are more effective than authoritarian ones DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.72.1.14169
Highlights
The pollution of the environment through littering is a serious societal problem that causes high costs for cleaning up and degrades the aesthetic value of the natural environment and settlements
56.2 flyers were distributed within the 30min distribution period of an experimental run, the numbers ranged from a minimum of 26 to a maximum of 99 flyers (SD = 17.8)
There was, no significant main effect of location, F (3, 79) = 1.90, p = .137, and the interaction location x condition, F (9, 79) = 1.12, p = .362, and the covariate variable number of distributed flyers, F (1, 79) = 2.75, p = .101, were likewise not significant in this supplementary ANOVA. This field experiment compared four communication conditions with respect to littering behaviour in a real world setting at railway-stations
Summary
The pollution of the environment through littering is a serious societal problem that causes high costs for cleaning up and degrades the aesthetic value of the natural environment and settlements. Evaluation studies and experiments assessing the actual effects of such measures are necessary for their optimisation and to decide which measures have the highest effectiveness Against this background, this field experiment analyses the effects of different types of anti-littering posters with reference to objective data about the littering behaviour of passers-by. On the one hand, data on the effectiveness of the use of posters per se is gathered and, in addition, effects of three different communication styles, namely humorous, environmentally oriented and authoritative communication, are compared. The selection of these three styles of communication with posters was made in light of previous studies as described below. Posters play a major role in environmental campaigns for proper waste disposal and the study, aims to contribute to the optimisation of efforts against littering
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Environmental Research, Engineering and Management
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
