The Loop Trail “Quest”: Use of a Choice-based Digital Simulation, An Interactive Video, and a Booklet to Communicate and Analyze Decision-making of Park Visitors

Abstract

Depreciative park visitor behaviors in protected areas can alter the relationship between humans, wildlife, and ecosystems and provide new opportunities for pathogens to cause illness in people. We created communication interventions that illustrate to park visitors the impact of off-trail walking, dogs off-leash, and littering. We aimed to uncover reasons behind park visitor decision-making and to compare differences in responses between messaging treatments. Our study in Great Falls Park (Potomac, MD) exposed 1207 park visitors to one of three messaging treatments: a choice-based digital simulation, a video, or a booklet. Participants either experienced or observed the role of park visitor behaviors in disease transmission to humans. All participants answered Likert-type questions that gauged their perceptions of the link between humans, animals, and disease. Participants in simulation and video treatments also ranked reasons for non-compliant behaviors. We compared changes in Likert scores by Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's tests, and compared rank data with Chi square analysis. Key findings suggest that participants selected reasons for non-compliant behaviors that aligned with their "self-interests." This study applies a social marketing lens to a One Health problem and demonstrates the need for educational interventions that employ game-based learning to convey associations between human and wildlife health.

A Design-Led Theory of Change for a Mobile Game App (Go Nisha Go) for Adolescent Girls in India: Multimix Methodology Study

“…A review of social theoretical frameworks and models included desk and literature reviews with reference to game-based learning, social theoretical frameworks, behavior change models, technological behavioral intervention models, DTC market approaches, and participatory ToC frameworks for complex interventions. Additionally, one of the authors (SH), the GOC Project Director, also provided evidence from her research on the application of game-based learning in One Health [ 35 ] to adapt those techniques to the development of the mobile game app. We conducted additional literature reviews of studies on consumer behavior models and frameworks most relevant to the game, to support the design of seamless DTC in-game elements.…”

On-site communication measures as a tool in outdoor recreation management: a systematic map

“…Ten studies were either quasi-experimental or fully experimental. The two studies that were fully experimental were virtual and/or game-based, in which they presented dilemmas to respondents they had to resolve with a particular behavior [31,32]. The quasi-experimental studies typically examined waste disposal behavior where researchers would plant a study area with pieces of trash and observed number of trash items collected.…”

Efficacy of Combining Education and Site Management in Reducing Off-Trail Travel in a Fragile Biotic Community, Acadia National Park

“…Indirect management actions, by contrast, leverage communication interventions to minimize depreciative behaviors by influencing visitor reasoning and decision-making (Bradford & McIntyre, 2007; Brown et al, 2010; Gramann & Vander Stoep, 1986; Guo et al, 2015; Howard et al, 2021; Schwartz et al, 2018; Settina et al, 2020). Previous studies have suggested that most depreciative behaviors are the result of unintentional behavior, not of malicious intent, and that such behaviors could be remedied through education-focused communication interventional messaging (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Harrison, 1976; Marion & Reid, 2007; Namba & Dustin, 1992).…”