10.2190/6PN9-MXFP-3BFF-CHHB 6PN9MXFP3BFFCHHB 4 The Effect of Strength of Commitment on Newspaper Recycling 245 254 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 6PN9MXFP3BFFCHHB.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=6PN9MXFP3BFFCHHB 3 Anton U. Pardini Richard D. Katzev Reed College, Portland, OR To investigate the impact of commitment on newspaper recycling, thirty households were randomly assigned to one of the following three conditions: <i>Information</i>, where subjects were informed about the recycling project through a leaflet; <i>Minimal Commitment</i>, where subjects were asked to make a verbal commitment to recycle newspapers; and <i>Strong Commitment</i>, where subjects signed a statement saying their household would participate in the project. The frequency of participation and the weight of the newspapers recycled was assessed during a two-week intervention period and a two-week follow-up period. The results on both measures indicated that the stronger the commitment, the greater the degree of recycling. In addition, the Strong Commitment group continued to maintain these gains throughout the follow-up period. The effects of commitment were viewed as a successful application of the minimal justification principle and were contrasted with the outcomes of incentive-based programs which rely on powerful external inducements. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Solid Waste Division, <i>Recycling Fact Sheet</i>, Recycling Information Office, Salem, Oregon, 1974. H. Jacobs and J. Bailey, Evaluating Participation in a Residential Recycling Program, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 12</i>, pp. 141-152, 1982-83. E. Geller, J. Chaffee, and R. Ingram, Promoting Paper-Recycling on a University Campus, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 5</i>, pp. 39-57, 1975. J. Witmer and E. Geller, Facilitating Paper Recycling: Effects of Prompts, Raffles, and Contests, <i>Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 9</i>, pp. 315-322, 1976. P. Luyben and S. Cummings, Motivating Beverage Container Recycling on a College Campus, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 11</i>, pp. 235-245, 1981-82. M. Lepper, Social Control Processes, Attributions of Motivation and the Internalization of Social Values, in <i>Social Cognition and Social Behavior: A Developmental Perspective</i>, T. Higgins, D. Ruble, and W. Hartrup (eds.), San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1983. J. Freedman and S. Fraser, Compliance Without Pressure: The Foot-in-the-Door Technique, <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4</i>, pp. 195-202, 1966. W. DeJong, An Examination of Self-Perception Mediation of the Foot-in-the-Door Effect, <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37</i>, pp. 2221-2239, 1979. C. Scott, Modifying Socially Conscious Behavior: The Foot-in-the-Door Technique, <i>Journal of Consumer Research, 41</i>, pp. 156-164, 1977. J. Arbuthnot, R. Tedeschi, M. Wayner, J. Turner, S. Kressel, and R. Rush, The Induction of Sustained Recycling Behavior through the Foot-in-the-Door Technique, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 6</i>, pp. 353-366, 1976-1977. M. Pallak, D. Cook, and J. Sullivan, Commitment and Energy Conservation, in <i>Applied Social Psychology Annual</i>, Vol. 1, L. Bickman (ed.), pp. 235-253, 1980. L. Becker, The Joint Effect of Feedback and Goal Setting on Performance: A Field Study of Residential Energy Consumption, <i>Journal of Applied Psychology, 63</i>, pp. 428-433, 1978. W. Bachman and R. Katzev, The Effects of Non-Contingent Free Bus Tickets and Personal Commitment on Urban Bus Ridership, <i>Transportation Research, 16A</i>, pp. 103-108, 1982. R. Katzev and T. Johnson, A Social-Psychological Analysis of Residential Electricity Consumption: The Impact of Minimal Justification Techniques, <i>Journal of Economic Psychology</i>, in press, 1983. L. White, B. Curbow, M. Costanzo, and T. Pettigrew, "Social Psychological Approaches to Promoting Lifestyle and Device-Oriented Conservation Behaviors," unpublished manuscript, 1983. M. Pallak and N. Cummings, Commitment and Voluntary Energy Conservation, <i>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2</i>, pp. 27-31, 1976. D. Bern, Self-Perception Theory, in <i>Advances in Experimental Social Psychology</i>, Vol. 6, L. Berkowitz (ed.), pp. 1-62, 1972. R. Cialdini, J. Cacioppo, R. Basset, and J. Miller, Low-Ball Procedure for Producing Compliance: Commitment then Cost, <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36</i>, pp. 463-476, 1978. A. Bandura, <i>Social Learning Theory</i>, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1977.