Bird lovers are more motivated to take action to prevent birds from colliding with their windows by messages that emphasize the effectiveness of those measures, while emotional appeals are more persuasive for the general public, a new Cornell study has found.
Window collisions are a leading cause of bird mortality, killing more than 1 billion birds annually in the United States and Canada. Nearly half of fatal bird collisions in the U.S., and 90% of those in Canada, occur at residences of three stories or less. In the study, researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology surveyed nearly 5,000 people across the U.S. and Canada to better understand what types of messaging motivates people to prevent bird collisions at their homes.
How to make your windows bird safe
- Always add markers on the outside surface of glass.
- Place markers 2 inches apart if using window film or paint (or 4 inches if using hanging paracords). If you use just one or a few stickers, or if markers are spaced too far apart, birds will try to fly through the gaps the way they fly through gaps in a tree canopy, and they will hit the glass.
- Visit stopbirdcollisions.org for more diy tips and how-to.
"If we want people to take action to reduce bird and window collisions, we really have to understand how to communicate with them," said Tina Phillips, co-author of the study, published Sept. 16 in Biological Conservation, and assistant director for the Center for the Engagement in Science and Nature at the Cornell Lab.
To do that, researchers sent detailed surveys to participants asking them questions to get at how likely they were to take an action after receiving different types of messaging. The content of the messages ranged from just stating the problem to adding context around efficacy, emotion, morality, and normative behavior.
Bird enthusiasts were more likely to treat their windows when shown the efficacy of the measures, such as placing tape, decals or film in a 2-inch by 2-inch pattern on their windows, the study found.
"They want to know if their action is actually going to make a difference," said Shelby Carlson, lead author and research associate at the Cornell Lab.
Members of the general public were more likely to install window treatments designed to prevent collisions when they were shown images and text that appealed to their emotions, such as a deceased bird that was a victim to a collision or language that emphasized the suffering of collision victims, the researchers found.
"If we want to reduce bird and window collisions, we ultimately have to change human behavior, and we can start to do that by tailoring our messaging for specific audiences," said Carlson.
The researchers also found that people with prior experience with a bird collision at their home, higher levels of education and views that humans and wildlife are interdependent were more likely to adopt bird-safe windows.
Messaging that focused on a personal obligation to protect birds from collisions (i.e., moral messaging) or perceived social influence from adapting bird-safe windows (i.e., normative messaging) did not increase the respondent's intent to treat their windows. Researchers also noted that older adults and respondents that identified as male were less likely to treat their windows.
"What makes this study unique," said Phillips, "is that we're using social science research and insights to try to understand how to effectively change human behavior to mitigate this problem. By understanding the kinds of messages that people relate to, we can better achieve our goals of trying to encourage people to take action on behalf of birds."
This research was supported by a Cornell Center for Social Sciences Grant. Learn more about bird collisions at stopbirdcollisions.org.
Kathi Borgmann is the communications manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
