Education Commons^™

Series

Communication

University of Rhode Island

Conformity plays a role in why people litter as well. If littering is perceived as a norm, people may change their behaviors to fit in with that “norm”. The theory of planned behavior says that attitudes toward a specific behavior as well as subjective norms and perceived control influence a person’s actions. If there is litter all over the ground, people may perceive littering as a norm, so even though they may know it’s bad, they may decide to litter anyways because other people do it too. The actor-observer effect may play a role when there is not a trashcan present. An individual can know that littering is bad and think that other people who litter don’t care about the environment. When there is no trashcan present, however, and that individual decides to litter, the individual could tell himself that he does care about the environment and that it was the situation he was in that made him litter. When litter has already accumulated, the false-consensus effect may influence people, making them overestimate the extent to which others think it’s ok to litter. If many people are perceived to think littering is ok, an individual might be more likely to do so as well. A version of pluralistic ignorance seems to be in effect as well. When people see a lot of trash on the ground and they don’t see anyone else concerned about it,