Advancing Conservation by Understanding and Influencing Human Behavior

Abstract

Behavioral sciences can advance conservation by systematically identifying behavioral barriers to conservation and how to best overcome them. Behavioral sciences have informed policy in many other realms (e.g., health, savings), but they are a largely untapped resource for conservation. We propose a set of guiding questions for applying behavioral insights to conservation policy. These questions help define the conservation problem as a behavior change problem, understand behavioral mechanisms and identify appropriate approaches for behavior change (awareness, incentives, nudges), and evaluate and adapt approaches based on new behavioral insights. We provide a foundation for the questions by synthesizing a wide range of behavior change models and evidence related to littering, water and energy conservation, and land management. We also discuss the methodology and data needed to answer these questions. We illustrate how these questions have been answered in practice to inform efforts to promote conservation for climate risk reduction. Although more comprehensive research programs to answer these questions are needed, some insights are emerging. Integrating two or more behavior change approaches that target multiple, context-dependent factors may be most successful; however, caution must be taken to avoid approaches that could undermine one another (e.g., economic incentives crowding out intrinsic incentives).

Review of transmission routes of 24 infectious diseases preventable by biosecurity measures and comparison of the implementation of these measures in pig herds in six European countries

“…This indicates that the farmers should be ensuring that the clean‐dirty areas are clearly defined and signs illustrate how to adhere to these. Nudging might also be efficient to influence behaviour for such type of problems (e.g., Reddy et al., ). Another strength of this study is that, although Postma et al.…”

Funding Conservation Locally: Insights from Behavioral Experiments in Indonesia

“…It is widely accepted that behavioral economic experiments are useful in understanding human behavior, yet conservation science has all but ignored this potential (Cowling ; Reddy et al . ).…”

“…We also find that matching increases the percent of people who give but has a crowding‐out effect on the percent of earnings donated under the monetary treatment. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of factoring human behavior – and specifically, the role of incentive schemes in influencing preferences for giving – into the design of conservation strategies (Veríssimo, ; Reddy et al ., ).…”

Audience segmentation to improve targeting of conservation interventions for hunters

“…Conservation interventions are typically implemented using a combination of actions that require managers to make site-specific decisions about which to use. Such decisions should be based on a clear understanding of who the action intends to influence (Veríssimo 2013;Reddy et al 2017) given that different types of people are likely to be responsive to different mechanisms (Kotler & Lee 2008). An appropriately defined target group is therefore fundamental to guide intervention design, yet many projects either fail to specify who they aim to influence or employ a broad definition such as all residents within a geographic area (Spiteri & Nepal 2006).…”