Risk information avoidance is widespread, and happens in contexts ranging from the personal to civic spheres. Disciplines from communication to psychology have been exploring the avoidance phenomena for decades, yet we lack a unifying theoretical model to understand it. To develop such a model, we start with the planned risk information-seeking model (PRISM) and explore its tenets, and related research, as they apply to information avoidance. We end with a theoretically sound planned risk information avoidance (PRIA) model and accompanying propositions in three overarching areas: cognitive, affective and socio-cultural. This model shows promise in advancing our collective understanding of the PRIA phenomenon.

No abstract

Although research suggests that feedback on energy usage can generate savings in residential and organizational settings, investigations into the effectiveness of comparative feedback efforts have been fragmented and the findings inconclusive. To help fill this gap, we present research on the effectiveness of a comparative feedback campaign in promoting energy conservation at a university. Surveys were administered in 2009 (n = 2,112) and 2012 (n = 1,601) to measure the extent to which a comparative feedback campaign influenced behavioral determinants, such as conservation-related subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and attitudes, as well as self-reported behaviors. Results indicate that respondents in participating buildings increased their energy conservation behaviors and perceptions of descriptive norms. Furthermore, participating buildings reduced their energy consumption (kWh/ft 2 ) by 6.5%, whereas non-participating buildings increased energy consumption by 2.4%. Our results show promise for

No abstract

Programs aimed at implementing change in organizations regularly experience high failure rates. Exploring resistance to change is one promising way to better understand what might be done to improve these rates. Resistance to change has often been envisioned as employee noncompliance with oneway change messages. This study instead conceptualizes resistance as an interpretive system between implementers and employees. The project developed a grounded typology of the interpretive structures that employees and implementers used to interpret others' behaviors as resistance or not. Four frames (or cognitive schema) that guide resistance interpretations were identified: (a) disagreeability, (b) protecting role performance, (c) conflicting stakes, and (d) habitual environment. Analyses examined patterns in these frames. This work develops a map of resistance frames that researchers studying resistance to change, communication campaigns, and implementation communication will find useful.