Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program

 

Date of this Version

Spring 2017

Document Type

Article

Citation

Environmental Studies Undergraduate Student Thesis, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2017

Comments

Copyright © 2017 Emily Hauck

Abstract

The effects of music and images on littering behavior were studied at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and on Facebook. This study investigated emotional responses to music as a stimulus and how a video impacted likelihood of change of littering behaviors. Because music and images can reach a large number of people quickly, this study can extend to other parts of the world because music and images cut across language barriers. This study can also help create effective and powerful commercials. Littering is an expensive and harmful problem, and music can affect emotions and empathy which can inspire behavior change in subjects. This study sought to advance the subjects’ current stage of behavior change, and it was found the video increased the likelihood of more than fifty percent of subjects to properly dispose of trash and pick up litter. The music in the video was composed by the researcher and a collection of images were compiled by the researcher into a video which was included in a survey via Google Forms. The survey was distributed to subjects ages nineteen and older. The images may have been more powerful than the music, due to reported emotional reactions and the likelihood of littering behaviors after the video.

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