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The Effect of Nudges on Likelihood to Travel to Tree-shaded Areas in Heatwaves

University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning

Given the benefits that tree-shading provides, and the proven effectiveness of effort-based nudges, our research question was “How do convenience and tree-shading impact students’ likelihood to go to designated indoor cooling area?”. We recruited students from UBC campus, and administered a survey. In the survey, we used Google Maps link and a visual map with the designated area’s address inputed for our convenience nudge, and presence of tree-shading for our environmental nudge. A 7-point Likert scale was used to measure student response for likelihood of going. Our results found no main effect for either convenience or tree-shading nudging. Neither convenience nor environmental nudging increased students’ likelihood of going. Results suggest that manipulation of the independent variables was poor. Limitations to our study suggest that students may lack motivation to travel in a heatwave. Other possibilities include, failure to include enough information, lacking student awareness or care for the environment. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Report

eng

2023-09-07

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85832

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/