Abstract
Pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) change is vital for biodiversity conservation, particularly in parks and protected areas where recreation can negatively impact wildlife. Strategic messaging can support PEB adoption by leveraging psychosocial drivers of behaviour. Current environmental messaging, examined across environmental value orientations and moral foundations theory, often appeals to biospheric and individualising values of care/harm, which do not resonate strongly with conservative-leaning audiences. Yet, parks and protected areas are supported across the political spectrum. Therefore, messaging to binding values that promote group cohesion may better support PEB adoption across politically diverse audiences.
This doctoral research examined visitor behaviour with conservation impacts in parks and other protected natural areas through a political lens. It evaluated audience-informed value-based message framing as a tool to increase dog leashing, a high-impact and high-plasticity behaviour, in dog walkers across the political spectrum. Four research gaps were addressed: (1) few studies have examined moral framing of PEBs in park settings; (2) PEB research for biodiversity conservation is limited; (3) political demographics of park visitors are not well understood; and (4) value-based message framing with insights from audience research has not sufficiently been explored for PEB messaging in parks and protected areas.
The research utilised a three-phase sequential exploratory–explanatory mixed-methods approach. In Phase I, a qualitative review of protected area signage examined appeals to motivate compliance with dog-related PEB requests. Phase II undertook audience research, using qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the psychosocial drivers of leash use and determine the influence of values and political orientation on leashing behaviour. The derived audience insights were used in Phase III to develop a series of sign-based value frames and test their effectiveness at increasing leashing behaviour across political demographics through quantitative analysis. The research is presented in a thesis-by-publication style across eight chapters.
The coastal area signage review in southeastern New Zealand (Phase I) identified six themes for appeals to follow dog-related rules and requests across 58 signs. Two themes were most prominent: wildlife protection appeals and wildlife presence appeals. These themes promote biospheric and altruistic values and, from a moral foundations theory perspective, individualising values of care/harm and fairness/reciprocity, which do not resonate strongly with conservative audiences. Therefore, findings from Phase I identified a potential problem with park and protected area signage.
Dog walkers’ perceptions of dog leashing were explored in Phase II. Survey (n = 168) and focus group (4, n = 12) findings from Dunedin, New Zealand, revealed that wildlife, although valued by dog walkers, was not a strong motivator to leash. In addition, values of being a good dog owner reinforced substantial barriers to leashing that favour instead the health and enjoyment of the dog. However, dog safety, another component of being a good dog owner, was the primary motivator for leashing. A survey of hikers with dogs in Shenandoah National Park, USA (n = 46) showed similar results. Furthermore, both studies found that political orientation influenced dog leashing, whereby leash use decreased with increasing conservatism. These findings suggested that dog safety messaging, which promotes binding values that resonate with conservative-leaning audiences, could be an effective communication strategy for increasing leashing in parks and protected areas.
In Phase III, signs framed around dog safety were designed and tested. Field observations of dog walkers (n = 866) in Dunedin, New Zealand, found that the dog safety sign (promoting individualising and binding values) effectively increased leashing but was no more effective than a wildlife safety sign (promoting individualising values only) and a control (no value framing). However, ordinal regression analysis of intercept survey results (n = 184) revealed an interaction effect between sign treatments and political orientation. Moderate and conservative-leaning dog walkers were more likely to be influenced by the dog safety sign than liberals. Liberals were most strongly influenced by the control sign. An online survey of US-based dog walkers (n = 1211) confirmed that the dog safety frame effectively increased intention to leash across all political orientations. In contrast, the wildlife safety frame reduced the intention to leash with very conservative participants, reaffirming the potential problems with current environmental messaging.
This research established the importance of considering political orientation in park and protected area-based PEB research and identified a potential issue with current messaging. It demonstrated how incorporating binding values can be a more effective messaging strategy for increasing PEBs with politically diverse visitors, especially those leaning conservative. The research also found a potential boomerang effect with liberal audiences. Exposure to value messaging resulted in lower levels of leashing with this group, indicating that the messages may have promoted opposing values, leading to inaction. Future research should consider ambivalence in response to value framing and evaluate how value frames resonate across a broader range of political orientations, who may respond differently than liberals and conservatives.
This thesis contributes to the fields of pro-environmental behaviour change and science communication. Furthermore, it extends the real-world application of value-based message framing through field-based research measuring actual behaviour.