“It pays to be green” : The role of persuasive communication to foster conservation
4.6. Conclusions and Discussion
Environmental conservation is a problem that concerns everyone in the world. Hence, it is important to understand what is the most effective mechanism to persuade individuals to support conservation activities. The role of persuasive communication on the environment is particularly important in developing countries, as the vulnerable population is most likely to suffer the consequences of environmental degradation. Departing from this gap, this paper experimentally tests the effectiveness of narratives and imperatives to promote donations to an environmental cause. By varying the mode—Narrative or Imperative—and the frame of communication—EgoisticorNon-egoistic—, we crafted four different messages and tested their effectiveness relative to aControlcondition, in which participants listened to a neutral message that is not related to the environment. The context of our analysis is northeastern Madagascar, one of the areas with high biodiversity value but seriously threatened by deforestation.
Our results show that Imperative Egoistic messages are most effective in driving contributions both in the extensive and intensive margins. Yet, this result should be validated in a different context. Furthermore, while our study considers the short-term effects of the intervention, there could be differential effects in the long run. For instance, stories might need to be part of the local folklore to be more accepted.
We also find that when the donation can increase the positive externality (public good is cheaper), participants contribute significantly less. Further work could examine whether motivations to support the environment are driven by warm-glow motives or depend on impure altruistic preferences.
In addition, we find that the congruence between the sender and receiver is not an important channel for persuasion among our population group. Irrespective of the environmental values expressed by individuals in a survey (Altruistic,EgoisticorBiospheric), we find that participants in the sample contribute more when the Egoistic frame is used compared to theNon-egoisticframe. This result suggests that populations living close to subsistence cannot afford to care about high order values such as environmental protection.
Moreover, our results indicate that policymakers should carefully pretest their campaigns with the local population, as a one-size intervention might not fit all. In particular, we find that messages that were framed using egoistic values crowd out the donations from participants who expressed a higher degree of intergenerational altruism towards future generations. Last, our exploratory results show that the level of education matters for per-suasion. Individuals with high schooling react more after listening to messages that highlight egoistic motives, while low educated individuals prefer theNarrative Non-Egoistic mes-sage. Our results suggest that the Imperative Non-Egoisticcommunication currently transmitted by conservation parties might not be the most effective, especially regarding audiences with low levels of schooling.
4.7. Appendices
4.7.1. Appendix A — Selection
Figure 4.A1: Household selection
Table 4.A1: Village types and sample size
Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 Type 4 Type 5
No. habitants 0-1000 1001-2000 2001-3000 3001-4000 >4000
No. villages 3 2 3 4 3
No. observations planned 12 24 32 48 88
Average no. observations collected 16 22 42 45 92
Total no. observations 47 44 126 176 277
4.7.2. Appendix B — Audios
Narrative Egoistic
Once upon a time there were trees, animals, water and air that gathered. The trees said:
“Men don’t stop cutting us”. The animals said: “And because of the fire in the mountains our homes are getting smaller”. The water said, “We keep getting dirty”. And then, one animal said: “What is going to happen if people don’t do something about it?” “There will be no water to grow rice”, said one of the trees. Then the wind said: “I will star spinning around more often and the storms will destroy the houses and flood the plantations”. The water added, “There will be no springs to collect water and there will be less food to eat”.
When you do not take care of the environment, it is likely that one day you will not be able to profit from it and you will suffer the consequences.
Imperative Egoistic
In recent years, people have increased the number of trees cut, and also the land and forests they burned. This has destroyed the habitats of animals and polluted the air and water. If people do not do something, there will be consequences:
Do not cut the trees from the forests or there will be no rain and thus less water to produce rice.
Do not cut the trees from the forests or there will be less protection for the houses against the strong wind and the plantations will be more vulnerable to floods.
Do not pollute the rivers or there will be no clean water and less food to eat.
When you do not take care of the environment, it is likely that one day you will not be able to profit from it and you will suffer the consequences.
Narrative Non-Egoistic
Once upon a time there were trees, animals, water and air that gathered. The trees said:
“Men don’t stop cutting us”. The animals said: “And because of the fire in the mountains our homes are getting smaller”. The water said, “We keep getting dirty”. And then, one animal said: “What is going to happen if people don’t do something about it?” “If I disappear my friend the rain will not come anymore” said one of the trees. Then the wind said, “I will start spinning around more often and the storms will destroy the houses of the animals”.
And then the water said, “All the animals that live with me will be gone and without rain then I will dry”. When you do not take care of the environment, it is likely that one day it will disappear and the world will suffer the consequences.
Imperative Non-Egoistic
In recent years, people have increased the number of trees cut, and also the land and forests they burned. This has destroyed the habitats of animals and polluted the air and water. If people do not do something, there will be consequences:
Do not cut the trees from the forests or there will be no rain.
Do not cut the trees from the forests or there will be less protection for the animal habitats against the strong wind.
Do not pollute the rivers or there will be no clean water and the fishes will disappear.
When you do not take care of the environment, it is likely that one day it will disappear and the world will suffer the consequences.
Control
“The telephone is a telecommunication device that was invented by American citizen A.Graham Bell in 1876. The telephone transports the human voice through zit change or the cable in the transmitter. In order to use the phone, there is a need for infrastructure called ‘telephone networks’ that can be cable or antenna. This infrastructure will be leased by subscription to the telecommunications company. In order to make the call feature available to anyone who has a phone on the entire network, these phones have been assigned a telephone number.” (Text taken from Wikipedia)
4.7.3. Appendix C — Example green and blue bookmarks Figure 4.C1: Bookmarks
4.7.4. Appendix D — Regression analysis
Table 4.D1: Treatment effects on effort
(Full sample, OLS and Tobit models)
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Positive effort Positive effort No. Green No. Green
Narrative Egoistic 0.008 0.006 0.056 0.096
(0.045) (0.043) (0.386) (0.381)
Imperative Egoistic 0.085∗∗ 0.089∗∗ 0.698∗ 0.859∗∗
(0.039) (0.039) (0.363) (0.361)
Narrative Non-Egoistic 0.022 0.022 0.289 0.228
(0.043) (0.043) (0.370) (0.366)
Imperative Non-Egoistic -0.003 -0.016 0.174 0.109
(0.046) (0.044) (0.399) (0.394)
Price Green Bookmarks=7500 0.004 0.004 -0.644∗∗∗ -0.644∗∗∗
(0.011) (0.011) (0.114) (0.113)
Price Green Bookmarks=10000 -0.015 -0.015 -0.732∗∗∗ -0.731∗∗∗
(0.013) (0.013) (0.114) (0.114)
Female -0.039 -0.340
(0.026) (0.243)
Female enumetator 0.135∗∗∗ -0.075
(0.027) (0.257)
Highest year of education 0.007∗∗ 0.088∗∗∗
(0.003) (0.027)
p-value T1 vs T2 0.0487 0.0254 0.0776 0.0338
p-value T3 vs T4 0.5625 0.3845 0.7628 0.7493
p-value T1 vs T3 0.7506 0.7008 0.5274 0.7150
p-value T2 vs T4 0.0269 0.0075 0.1640 0.0440
Table 4.D2: Multiple Hypothesis Testing
Outcome variable Treatment p-value not adjusted p-value adjusted (B-H)
Positive effort Narrative Egoisticvs. Control 0.898 0.898
Positive effort Imperative Egoisticvs. Control 0.021 0.084
Positive effort Narrative Non-Egoisticvs. Control 0.616 0.898
Positive effort Imperative Non-Egoisticvs. Control 0.721 0.898
No. green bookmarks Narrative Egoisticvs. Control 0.801 0.898
No. green bookmarks Imperative Egoisticvs. Control 0.017 0.084
No. green bookmarks Narrative Non-Egoisticvs. Control 0.533 0.898
No. green bookmarks Narrative Non-Egoisticvs. Control 0.783 0.898
Notes: For the multiple hypothesis testing we use the Benjamini–Hochberg method as it has been shown to be less conservative than the Bonferroni correction.
4.7.5. Appendix E — Instructions
Invitation to participate
Good morning/afternoon! We are part of a research project from the University of Göttingen in Germany. With our project, we want to learn more about the social and economic characteristics of the people living in the SAVA region. Today, we would like to ask for your participation in a survey that will help us to succeed with our project. The survey will take in total 1 hour and the answers you provide will be anonymous. For your participation, you will receive a bonus of 2,000 ariary. However, during the questionnaire you might be able to increase this amount.
Would you like to take part in the survey? Yes No If the participant says ‘Yes’, proceed with the questionnaire.15
If the participant says ‘No’, thank for their time and continue with the random selection of households
Survey questions16
Thank you very much for your participation. Your answers will be very helpful for our research. We appreciate your time and help very much.
The questions that we will ask you are not a test, and therefore there are no right or wrong answers, we just want to know more about how people live here. If you decide to participate, but at some point during the meeting you feel uncomfortable, you can tell us to stop and we will leave, however you will not receive the bonus payment.
Before we start, I would like to clarify that the answers you will provide here are completely anonymous and will only be used for academic purposes. Please remember that this is not a test and therefore there are no right or wrong answers. The answers you provide here should only correspond to your reality or your opinion. We kindly ask you to answer as accurate as possible.
15Text in italics corresponds to the tasks for the enumerators
16Section names was not visible for participants
PART 1: Household and individual characteristics 1. District: Sambava Antalaha
2. Village Name:
3. How many people live with you?
4. Were you born in this village? Yes No
If answer in question 4 is ‘Yes’, go to question 5 and then 8. If answer in question is
‘No’, go to question 6 and then 7
5. How long has your family (ancestors) lived in this village?
6. How long have you lived in this village?
7. Why did you move from your previous place?
(Select the answer that best fits the participant’s answer)
Because of marriage
Because I had to take care of a family member Because I did not have land in the previous place Because I did not have a job in the previous place Because of a natural disaster
Other:
8. How many children do you have?
(If answer in question 8 is different from 0, go to question 9. If answer in question is 0, go to question 11)
9. In the previous question, you mentioned that you have children. How many of them currently work on activities related to agriculture?
10. In the previous question, you mentioned that you have children. If you would have the chance to decide the future of each of them, how many would you like to see working in activities related to agriculture?
11. Was/is agriculture the main activity of your parents? Yes No
12. In the last 12 months, did it happen that there was not enough money to buy food?
Yes No