Norm accessibility: An exploratory study of backcountry and frontcountry recreational norms

This study examined the norms that are salient to or accessed by subjects in response to scenes of frontcountry and backcountry settings. Inasmuch as salient norms are more likely to influence behavior, the concept of norm accessibility has utility for recreation and natural resource management. After viewing sets of photographic slides of either frontcountry or backcountry recreation settings, college students completed a questionnaire that elicited salient norms and measured students’ previous experience, knowledge, and frequency of visitation levels with the specific setting. Results suggest that while there seem to be few differences in the norm topics recalled or mean number of norms accessed by respondents in backcountry and frontcountry settings, there was slightly more group agreement in the norms accessed for the backcountry setting. The number of norms recalled by respondents was influenced by previous experience, frequency of contact with the setting, and level of knowledge with the recreational setting. Norm accessibility may be particularly relevant in influencing and predicting behavior of recreationists.

Keywords:

• norms
• norm accessibility
• salience
• recreational behavior
• backcountry norms
• frontcountry norms