1. Because of saving energy and reducing detergent use, it makes sense to study ways in which the effectiveness of messages in addition to towel reuse may be improved, because they may contribute to a cleaner environment. Secondly, very little research has been done addressing either descriptive norm effects on towel reuse behavior or the more specific effects of provincial versus general norms. Earlier studies are inconsistent with regard to the relative effects of provincial versus general descriptive norms. They did not show overall benefit from those descriptive norm conditions compared to a standard environmental message. Because of the wide impact of the Goldstein paper and because the inconsistencies across studies using similar designs, these studies conducted by Bohner and Schlüter (2014) are highly relevant.
2. The independent variable is the message conditions. A distinction is made in a standard environmental message: “Help to save the environment. Every day we clean a great number of towels, many of them are unused. Please help us to protect the environment. You can join us in this program to help us to protect the environment by reusing your towel during your stay.”, and descriptive norm messages: “Join your fellow guests in helping t save the environment. In a study currently conducted [conducted in the fall of 2009], 75% of the guests [guests who stayed in this room (xxx)] participated in our new resource savings program by using their towel more than once. You can join your fellow guests in this program to help save the environment by reusing your towel during your stay.” (Bohner & Schlüter, 2014). The text in italics represents the two levels of the general versus provincial norm manipulation. These provide four different versions of the descriptive norm message. Also, ‘xxx’ in the provincial norm conditions, was replaced with the actual room number. Finally, each message version ended with the exact instructions on how to participate or not to participate. These were the same in each message. The dependent variable is the towel reuse. The measurement of this dependent variable is nominal.
3. After Study , they didn’t know how guests would have behaved if there was no message at all, urging them to reuse towels. Therefore, the design of Study 2 was very similar with Study 1, with the addition of a one-week, no-message baseline observation period that preceded the experimental condition. In order to test whether the standard and normative messages would increase towel reuse rates compared to a no-intervention baseline, the study was repeated in a hotel that had no towel-reuse program going on.
4. The results of both studies show that the reuse rates are high overall, and that both standard and descriptive norm messages increase the reuse rates in comparison with a no-message baseline. However, both studies show that the standard environmental message was highly effective and even more effective than the descriptive norm messages. The results of Study 2 prove that there is a nonsignificant trend toward more effectiveness of the provincial norm than the general norm. Therefore, Study 2 replicated an important finding of Goldstein et al. This, however, differs from the results of their own Study 1. Also, the effects of proximity are inconsistent across other studies. There are also cultural and conceptual issue, comparing the present findings with previous findings.
5. Because the cultural background has not been used to influence towel reuse in Germany before, the estimates of a separate group of pilot participants will be collected, to determine if presenting a descriptive norm of 75% would appear credible and effective. A sample of adults will be recruited in the area where the hotels of Study 1 and 2 were located. The pilot participants have to indicate their original ethnicity. This is called purposive sampling, because on forehand we assume that the participants have some kind of cultural background. They can choose from German, Dutch, Belgian, French, Polish, Swiss, Australian, Danish or other. With this way of pilot testing, the towel reuse behavior can be captured, taking into account the culture background of the people studied.
6. Because behavioral traced were to be recorded anonymously and unobtrusively, the ethics committee waived the need for written informed consent from the participants. This enhance the extent with the ethical guidelines that are followed. Second, staff members who kept track of the towel reuse, were aware of the different messages being used, but they were unaware of any hypothesis. Also, the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. This also enhance the extent. Because as described in ‘The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice’, “Scientific activities are performed scrupulously, unaffected by mounting pressure to achieve.” (Association of Universities in the Netherlands, 2012). Third, the presented information is verifiable. The authors made clear what the data and the conclusions are based on, where they were derived from and how they can be verified. This again, enhance the extent with the ethical guidelines. Finally, the article was capable of being verified and therefore is peer reviewed. This also enhance the extent.
7. The housekeeping staff was thoroughly instructed how to record reuse rates. To keep procedures as simple as possible, staff members kept track of towels placed on the towel rack on their usual worksheets. There is high observer reliability, because the observers are trained, and there were clear definitions and classifications of behavior. Second, there were different studies underlying to this study, therefore there is established measures reliability. There is a comparison of the results obtained from the measure they were developing with the results obtained from a known, tested measure that has been designed for the same purpose. This also enhance the reliability.
8. It’s valid because they did a study after study 1, this enhance validity. On the other hand, it’s not valid, because in Study 2 the hotel was a 3-star hotel instead of a 4-star hotel, and Study 2 had less participants than Study 1. This lowers the validity and this refers to criterion validity. We can also speak of high concurrent validity, because Study 1 and 2 both showed that the reuse rates are high overall. At least, there is predictive validity, they predict real-world outcomes, because in Study 2 they also tested how guests would behave if there was no message at all, urging them to reuse towels.
9. I think the article is of a moderate quality. Like the authors of the article itself said, they do not take the ethnicity in account. This way there is a chance that bias occurs, which leads to population stratification. Despite the fact that there were highly similar procedures, the two studies yielded partly different findings, in comparison with the results which were obtained in an U.S. hotel. Also, the reuse rates in current studies were much higher in comparison to the studies obtained in the U.S. Above all, even the no-message baseline in Study 2 was higher than the reuse rates in the different message conditions by Goldstein et al. (2008). Therefore, this may reflect a general difference in environmental attitudes and behaviors between countries. Finally, provincial versus general norm effects were inconsistent across studies, and the alternative manipulation of temporal proximity showed no clear results.
Reference list
- Bohner, G., & Schlüter, L.E. (2014). A room with a viewpoint revisited: Descriptive norms and hotel guests’ towel reuse behavior. PLOS One, 9: e104086. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104086
- Goldstein NJ, Cialdini RB, Griskevicius V (2008) A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of Consumer Research 35: 472–482. doi:10.1086/586910
- VSNU. (2005). The Netherlands code of conduct for scientific practice: Principles of good scientific teaching and research. Available at: http://www.vsnu.nl/files/documenten/Domeinen/Onderzoek/The_Netherlands_Code_of_Conduct_for_Scientific_Practice_2012.pdf