Using value-belief-norm theory to explore visitor responses to education programs at animal-themed facilities

Abstract

I use value-belief-norm theory to frame how environmental education program participants interpret important messages and set behavioral intentions in response to environmental education program content. I compare participants at three animal-themed environmental organizations with different missions, postulating that institutional mission frames values-based messaging and drives outcomes in these contexts. This paper is the third part of a mixed-methods comparative case study in which I analyzed program content across sites, compared visitors’ pre-program characteristics and beliefs, and now explore visitor interpretations and intentions post-program. I find that visitors accurately detect key values-based messages at each facility, but that each organization activates different preexisting knowledge and values, which affects both the relative salience of different elements of the value-belief-norm framework and whether visitors commit to pro-environmental behavior.

Keywords:

• values
• beliefs
• norms
• behavior
• education
• animals

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge my dissertation committee and anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on this paper. I would also like to thank my research subjects for sharing their time and thoughts with me.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Curriculum for Environment and Ecology and the A.C. and Dot Hall Summer Research Fellowship at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Data availability

Some data is available upon request.