title: Being in a "Green" Building Elicits "Greener" Recycling, but Not Necessarily "Better" Recycling.
abstract: Previous observational work revealed that transient populations in a sustainable building disposed of waste more accurately when compared to patrons in a non-sustainable building. The current study uses an experimental design to replicate this observed effect and to investigate whether or not the built environment influences motivational factors to impact behavior. We find support that a building designed and built to communicate an atmosphere of sustainability can influence waste disposal behavior. Participants in the sustainable building used the garbage receptacle significantly less and compensated by tending to select the containers and organics receptacle more, which actually resulted in more errors overall. Our findings suggest that building atmospherics can motivate people to recycle more. However, atmospherics alone do not appear to be sufficient to elicit the desired performance outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors.forename: David W-L
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: DiGiacomo
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Lenkic
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors.forename: Vanessa K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kingstone
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D005735:Garbage; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult