A study conducted by Liang, Henderson, and Kee (In Press) observed the effect of water conservation messages on individual’s attitudes towards conserving water. The researchers found that participants attitudes decreased after viewing all eight message conditions. Following this observation, Dr. Liang and Lauren Henderson are currently working on a paper that will focus on modeling the underlying mechanisms that drove participants’ negative attitude change.
In the future, we hope to use the behavior model (see section above) in order to develop more effective and persuasive water conservation messages. By doing this, we can help California and other regions suffering from drought to better reach their water conservation goals through effective and strategic communication. Additionally, we hope to branch our water conservation research to other resource conservation fields such as energy.
Currently, our team is working to partner with organizations with similar sustainability goals ranging from on-campus clubs at Chapman University, to fellow Universities, and local municipals and groups.
Strategic Environmental Communication Lab 