Monash University researchers have found tailored messaging is more likely to influence consumers to change their reliance on and use of single-use plastics.
Researchers from Monash Sustainable Development Institute's (MSDI) research enterprise BehaviourWorks Australia conducted a study of 1,001 Victorian adults to determine how media content about plastic could influence perceptions, intentions and behaviours of two groups - 'plastic users' and 'plastic avoiders'.
Believed to be the first of its kind, the research was led by Dr Kim Borg, Professor Jo Lindsay and Dr Jim Curtis, and published in the paper Targeted Change: Using Behavioral Segmentation to Identify and Understand Plastic Consumers and How They Respond to Media Communications in the journal Environmental Communication.
Researchers took into account demographic factors and users' media exposure for the experiment.
They found that mobilising existing media content may provide a cost-effective way for environmental communicators to increase their public impact.
Dr Borg said plastic pollution was a global problem with negative ramifications for climate change, biodiversity and human health.
"Around 80 per cent of plastic waste is sent to landfill or ends up in the environment, and while we do have increased uptake of biodegradable solutions and reusable alternatives, policymakers can take action in the short term by using targeted social marketing campaigns that encourage plastic avoidance and behaviour change," she said.
"The key is to understand specific behaviours and audiences that need to change, which will allow the design of more effective interventions."
Researchers said media that drew attention to the prevalence and scale of plastic waste could unintentionally influence plastic users to believe their behaviour is common and acceptable.
"This can be problematic," Dr Borg said. "We know that plastic consumption is mostly influenced by social norms - unwritten social rules. If we see content that shows others avoiding single-use plastics, we are more likely to avoid it too."
For the study, respondents were asked demographic questions, as well as their media use and exposure, how often they had seen news stories or social media content about plastic waste and their level of familiarity with four documentaries about plastic pollution.
Respondents were also asked about their use of single-use plastic items in various contexts.
Lastly, they were randomly asked to view one of five short video clips - four were from existing documentaries about plastic waste and one was a control video about how plastic is made.
Immediately after viewing, they were asked to indicate their avoidance intentions and those who agreed to be recontacted were sent a follow up survey a month later, asking if there were any lasting changes in perceptions and if any intentions translated into actions.
About half of the original cohort completed the follow-up survey.
Through their analysis, researchers found the likelihood of being a plastic avoider increased with age, they were also more likely to be confident in their ability to avoid using single-use plastics, believed others avoided using single-use plastics and that plastic avoidance was beneficial.
In contrast, respondents who were working were one-and-a-half-times more likely to be plastic users, along with respondents who believed avoiding plastic would involve costs, and those who saw themselves as plastic avoiders were actually slightly more likely to be plastic users.
Researchers found video clips which focused on the impact plastic waste has on wildlife positively influenced perceptions about plastic avoidance in the follow-up survey among plastic users.
Plastic avoiders, who were partly avoiding plastic because they believed others were too, who saw one of the clips about the scale of the problem believed that others were avoiding plastic less often in the follow-up survey than they did before the experiment.
This confirmed to researchers that drawing attention to the scale of plastic waste can make the bad behaviour (plastic use) seem more common, and might see people more likely to use plastic because they believe others are too.
They also found viewing one of the impact-focused video clips could positively influence avoidance intentions and behaviour among plastic users, who reported avoiding single-use plastics more often one month after the initial experiment.
"The way we talk about and frame problems matters, and different audiences respond differently depending on how problems are framed," Dr Borg said.
"Environmental communicators should test messaging with different audiences – including those who are already complying with desired behaviours.
"We found content which focuses on the impact of plastic pollution, rather than the volume of plastic waste, promoted positive change."
