Effects of social networks on interventions to change conservation behavior |
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Authors: | Emiel de Lange E.J. Milner-Gulland Aidan Keane |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;2. ICCS, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK |
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Abstract: | Social networks are critical to the success of behavioral interventions in conservation because network processes such as information flows and social influence can enable behavior change to spread beyond a targeted group. We investigated these mechanisms in the context of a social marketing campaign to promote a wildlife poisoning hotline in Cambodia. With questionnaire surveys we measured a social network and knowledge and constructs from the theory of planned behavior at 3 points over 6 months. The intervention initially targeted ∼11% (of 365) of the village, but after 6 months ∼40% of the population was knowledgeable about the campaign. The likelihood of being knowledgeable nearly doubled with each additional knowledgeable household member. In the short term, there was also a modest, but widespread improvement in proconservation behavioral intentions, but this did not persist after 6 months. Estimates from stochastic actor-oriented models suggested that the influences of social peers, rather than knowledge, were driving changes in intention and contributed to the failure to change behavioral intention in the long term, despite lasting changes in attitudes and perceived norms. Our results point to the importance of accounting for the interaction between networks and behavior when designing conservation interventions. |
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Keywords: | impact evaluation information flow poison social influence social marketing social norms stochastic actor-oriented model theory of planned behaviour evaluación de impacto flujo de información influencia social modelo estocástico orientado hacia el actor mercadotecnia social normas sociales teoría del comportamiento planeado veneno 入侵物种 社会营销 毒性 信息流 社会影响 随机行为者导向模型 影响评估 计划行为理论 社会规范 |
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