The Effects of Litter on Littering Behavior in a Forest Environment

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that there are stimuli in the environment that can influence the amount of litter discarded in that environment. This experiment investigated the effects of litter already present within an area on littering behavior in a forest setting. The study was conducted for a period of four successive Fridays. The first and third Fridays were used to obtain an estimate of the amount of litter that accumulated after the areas were cleaned of litter (the nonlittered condition). During the second and fourth Fridays all litter was removed from the area, then 60 pieces of litter were scattered throughout the picnic site (the littered condition). The number of pieces of litter was counted each Saturday morning. The amount of litter found on Saturday mornings following a littered condition was always less than the amount of litter found following a nonlittered condition. In those areas which were littered, people had a tendency not to discard additional litter.

Behavior Analysis and Environmental Protection: Accomplishments and Potential for More

“…Some early examples include litter control applications at movie theaters (Burgess, Clark, & Hendee, 1971), grocery stores (Geller, Witmer, & Tuso, 1977;Geller, Witmer, & Orebaugh, 1976), shopping centers (Geller, Brasted, & Mann, 1980), football stadiums (O'Neill, Blanck, & Joyner, 1980), camping areas (Crump, Nunes, & Crossman, 1977;Powers, Osborne, & Anderson, 1973), and even prisons (Hayes, Johnson, & Cone, 1975).…”

Justifiability of Littering: An Empirical Investigation

“…Apart from the costs of employing someone to remove the litter, there are additional environmental costs to take into account. Unintentional littering can cause significant environmental damage in the wilderness, as it is not only visually ugly, but also potentially dangerous as a discarded live cigarette or a glass bottle could cause a devastating forest fire (Crump et al, 1977).…”

The power of a bad example: A field experiment in household garbage disposal

“…A series of experimental studies have provided evidence supporting this idea. In these studies, researchers experimentally induced variation in the amount of litter present at places like grocery stores (Geller et al 1977), picnic areas (Crump et al 1977), a waiting room for participants to a lab experiment (Kraus et al 1978), a parking garage (Reiter and Samuel 1980, Cialdini et al 1990, and Reno et al 1993, an amusement park (Cialdini et al 1990), the lobby of a dormitory on a university campus (Cialdini et al 1990), an academic department's common room (Ramos and Torgler 2010), and an alley in a large shopping area (Keizer et al 2011). 1 With a few exceptions (Crump et al 1977 andReno et al 1993), these experimental studies find that people litter significantly more often in littered environments as compared to clean 1 Finnie (1973) and Schultz et al (2013) also study littering in clean and dirty areas, but the cleanliness of the area is not experimentally varied, making it impossible to infer causal relationships.…”