Alexander Maki

Time perspective and volunteerism: The importance of focusing on the future

ABSTRACT Because volunteerism is a planned activity that unfolds over time, people who more frequently focus on the future might also be more likely to initiate volunteerism and sustain it over time. Using longitudinal (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) paradigms, we investigated whether time perspective, and in particular a person’s orientation toward the future, is related to volunteers’ beliefs and behavior. In Study 1, a person’s dispositional level of future time perspective was closely linked to volunteer beliefs and behavior. In Study 2, people who wrote about the future reported higher intentions to volunteer, and this was particularly true for infrequent volunteers and those with lower levels of dispositional future time perspective. Across two studies, we found evidence that future time perspective, whether a chronic disposition or a pattern of thought elicited by someone else, is linked to volunteer beliefs and behavior.

The Promise and Limitations of Using Analogies to Improve Decision-Relevant Understanding of Climate Change

To make informed choices about how to address climate change, members of the public must develop ways to consider established facts of climate science and the uncertainties about its future trajectories, in addition to the risks attendant to various responses, including non-response, to climate change. One method suggested for educating the public about these issues is the use of simple mental models, or analogies comparing climate change to familiar domains such as medical decision making, disaster preparedness, or courtroom trials. Two studies were conducted using online participants in the U.S.A. to test the use of analogies to highlight seven key decision-relevant elements of climate change, including uncertainties about when and where serious damage may occur, its unprecedented and progressive nature, and tradeoffs in limiting climate change. An internal meta-analysis was then conducted to estimate overall effect sizes across the two studies. Analogies were not found to inform knowledge about climate literacy facts. However, results suggested that people found the medical analogy helpful and that it led people—especially political conservatives—to better recognize several decision-relevant attributes of climate change. These effects were weak, perhaps reflecting a well-documented and overwhelming effect of political ideology on climate change communication and education efforts in the U.S.A. The potential of analogies and similar education tools to improve understanding and communication in a polarized political environment are discussed.

Understanding proenvironmental intentions and behaviors: The importance of considering both the behavior setting and the type of behavior

ABSTRACT To better understand the consistency of people’s proenvironmental intentions and behaviors, we set out to examine two sets of research questions. First, do people perform (1) different types of proenvironmental behaviors consistently, and (2) the same proenvironmental behavior consistently across settings? Second, are there consistent predictors of proenvironmental behavioral intentions across behavior and setting type? Participants reported four recycling and conservation behaviors across three settings, revealing significant variability in rates of behaviors across settings. Prior behavior, attitudes toward the behavior, and importance of the behaviour consistently predicted proenvironmental intentions. However, perceived behavioral control tended to predict intentions to perform proenvironmental behavior outside the home. Future research aimed at understanding and influencing different proenvironmental behaviors should carefully consider how settings affect intentions and behavior.

Investigating Similarities and Differences Between Volunteer Behaviors Development of a Volunteer Interest Typology

Given that volunteers perform a diverse range of behaviors aimed at helping distinct causes, a more nuanced understanding of how types of volunteer behaviors are similar and different would enrich both basic and applied perspectives on volunteerism. We created and validated an inventory of individuals’ interests in eight different types of volunteering: administrative volunteering, helping animals, interpersonal helping (autonomy or dependency), donating, physical volunteering (built or natural environments), and political volunteering. Grouping these eight types of positions into two general categories (interpersonal and skills-based volunteer positions), we also examined convergent and discriminant validity, linking interest in these positions to constructs from the volunteerism literature (i.e., prosocial personality, volunteer motivations, and volunteer satisfaction). This research demonstrates that volunteer behaviors can be classified into types, certain individuals are interested in different types of volunteer behaviors, and volunteers engaged in behaviors that match their interests express greater volunteer satisfaction.

Using Meta-Analysis in the Social Sciences to Improve Environmental Policy

Policymakers have recently looked to the social sciences for effective strategies to address environmental issues, including how to change people’s environmental behaviors. During that time, social scientists have been challenged to improve how they assess, summarize, and convey the state of environmental social science. Meta-analysis, the quantitative review of existing research using data from multiple studies, is one method researchers use to assess the state of knowledge and share best practices. Development of new data reporting standards and systems would improve not only environmental social science, but also the interface between environmental social sciences and policymakers. In particular, dynamic meta-analyses, or frequently updated meta-analyses, would ensure that policymakers have access to up-to-date findings and would allow policymakers to examine subsets of studies that best approximate relevant contexts for new policies. These new standards for conducting and reporting meta-analyses would allow environmental social scientists to more effectively inform policy, and would help policymakers understand and assess the latest developments in the field.

Employee Energy Benefits: What are They and What Effect Do They Have on Employees?

Employee energy benefits (EEBs), such as subsidies for employee home energy audits and financial incentives for carpooling to work, aim to influence employees’ environmental behaviors outside of work. Exploring these understudied benefits would offer new insights that can enrich theories of employer and employee motivations for engaging in environmental behavior, as well as reveal new strategies for making significant progress on environment goals. By drawing upon employer reports and conducting a survey of 482 U.S. adults employed full-time, we found that there are a wide range of types of EEBs currently offered by employers, and furthermore they were more likely to be offered in certain industries, such as state and local governments, but not others such as retail. These benefits were offered to 17% of employees, and included a vast array of strategies and approaches. Guided by theorizing on employer and employee motivation, open-ended responses suggested employers were perceived to offer EEBs to maximize competiveness and because of social responsibility concerns, and employees tended to enroll because they wanted to save money and time or because they cared about the environment. Finally, EEBs were linked to employee environmental behavior and morale. The findings reveal new information about the types of EEBs being offered, motivations for offering and enrolling in EEBs, and their relationship to employee behavior and morale. This work suggests numerous lines of promising new research.