TESTING SOCIAL NORMS AS AN INCENTIVE TO ACTIVE TRANSPORTION BEHAVIOR
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This document discusses testing social norms as an incentive for active transportation behavior. It describes an experiment that offered different incentives (financial, social gift, mixed market/social, social/cultural) to encourage commuters to use active transportation for one week. The experiment found that social/non-financial norms had a greater effect on changing behavior than financial incentives alone or mixed incentives. It concludes that relationships between market and social incentives are different, and social norms have significant potential to influence willingness to change behavior.
TESTING SOCIAL NORMS AS AN INCENTIVE TO ACTIVE TRANSPORTION BEHAVIOR
- 1. TESTING SOCIAL NORMS AS AN INCENTIVE TO ACTIVE TRANSPORTION BEHAVIOR William Riggs, PhD, AICP, LEED AP Assistant Professor, City & Regional Planning wriggs@calpoly.edu Twitter // @billyriggs
- 2. MOTIVATION RATIONALE OUTCOMES William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 3. MOTIVATION • Foster healthier lifestyles • Increase livability & economic resilience • Improve environmental quality / sustainability • Nudge behavior William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 4. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 5. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 6. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 7. RATIONALE William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 8. THEORY / LITERATURE • Correlations urban sprawl & obesity (Ewing; Cervero) • Correlations higher walkability, increased walking behavior and improved population health independent of SES, or lifestyle preference (Frank; Sallis & Glanz) • Housing not an equitably allocated; price, sorting, discrimination and individual preferences may pose barriers to neighborhood selection / choice (Ellen; Quigley; Williams & Jackson; Rawls) • Suggestion that lifestyle choice and behavioral dimension plays a part in active travel (Forsyth, et al, 2007). William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 9. BEHAVIORAL THEORY • Providing better information can lead to (or nudge) different decisions (Ariely, 2010) • Social and market incentives drive decisions (Walker, 2012) • Many programs do not account for daily user decisions, length of trip or (if driving) the amount / cost of time (TCRP 2005; Litman 2006). • Dynamic (digital) information can lead to improved efficiency in these areas (Sengumta, 2012) Social Norms Market Norms Behavior William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 10. (Riggs & Gilderbloom, forthcoming)
- 11. July 2013 William Riggs, PhD, AICP, LEED AP 11 William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 12. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 13. Education / Marketing Program William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 14. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs LACK OF INFORMATION • 18% of participants (N=60) had no knowledge of transit program • “I thought I had to pay for it, or exchange parking pass for it. Everyone I talk to is under that impression. That could be a marketing area you may want to focus on at some point.”
- 15. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs LACK OF INFORMATION
- 16. The Power of Less than Rational Human Behavior • Market economics assumes rational behavior and that people respond to incentives (MB = MC) – What about emotions? Values? Social Pressure? – Other motivators that are simple and concrete? – Markets imperfect (hence government corrects)
- 17. EXPERIMENT • Varying incentives or treatments offered to commuters to encourage more ‘active commutes’ and not drive for 1 week in comparative evaluation of observed vs. predicted behavior – Financial (Money / Cash Incentive $5) – Social Gift (Coffee / Juice) – Mixed Market and Social (Coffee value at $2) – Social / Cultural (Altruistic request to do something good for environment) • Hypothesis 1 (H1): The relationship between market and social incentives will be different. • Hypothesis 2 (H2): All things being equal, social norms will have the potential to create an equal or greater pull on willingness to change behavior. • Hypothesis 3 (H3): Including both monetary and social signals will lessen the effect of social / altruistic exchange and cause the incentive to be perceived as a market one. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 18. –MARK TWAIN William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs OUTCOMES
- 19. Market Not Always as Strong 30.1% 34.5% 13.3% 42.5% 69.9% 77.0% 74.3% 67.3% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% Market High Social / Gift Mixed Market / Social Social / Cultural Percentage Success Failure
- 20. EXPERIMENT OUTCOMES • Hypothesis 1 (H1): Relationships between market and social incentives significantly different • Hypothesis 2 (H2): Social / non-financial norms significantly greater pull on willingness to change behavior. • Hypothesis 3 (H3): Including both monetary and social signals in incentives causes both to be less effective. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 21. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 22. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 23. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 24. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs
- 26. William Riggs, PhD // @billyriggs CONTACT William Riggs PhD, AICP, LEED AP City & Regional Planning www.williamriggs.com wriggs@calpoly.edu 805.756.6317 Twitter // @billyriggs
Editor's Notes
- #2: ACTIVE WRITING STRATEGY -- what if anything motivates you walk drive or take transit?
- #4: …and they live in communities where, as you can see, everybody needs a car to get from one place to another.
- #5: - Comparatively, the Bay Area is leading the US in terms of both investigating and thinking about resilience, and adopting sustainable design strategies. - But, there are others who are exceeding us in reducing our 20 MTCO2 emission per person per annum,
- #6: But we haven’t been building nearly enough housing near our job centers. As a result, workers have to endure long commutes and use a lot of gas driving between their jobs and their houses…
- #7: - Comparatively, the Bay Area is leading the US in terms of both investigating and thinking about resilience, and adopting sustainable design strategies. - But, there are others who are exceeding us in reducing our 20 MTCO2 emission per person per annum,
- #8: …and they live in communities where, as you can see, everybody needs a car to get from one place to another.
- #10: Behavior the low hanging frut
- #12: By walking distance; Campus PTDM Master Plan inidcates spaces available All began with parking
- #13: At the same time we have seen a revolutions in new was that people can both 1) know and 2) respond to the environment
- #18: Behavior the low hanging frut
- #19: The first draft of anything is shit
- #21: Behavior the low hanging frut
- #22: Soft-sell for pledges: 20 sign-ups We had great turnout at the event and 22 people signed up to break the mode for custom trip planning assistance. We had about 5 onsite signups for the BearPass (I think that’s right but I didn’t get the final number from Devika). We also had a few cyclists and transit riders who saw or heard about the event from friends and expressed interest in the trip planning services -- so it could be that there is a lot of latent demand for help with trip planning (Note: we only invited those who were documented as parking in UHall during our surveys.)