Understanding how to change behavior as it relates to the environment is important in order to promote more pro-environmental behavior in the future. The relationship between knowledge and behavior is unclear, however. Some argue that knowledge is a necessary but insufficient precursor to behavior change, and that those who know more about environmental issues may know how to take more pro-environmental behaviors. For instance, students who are majoring in environmental science may be more likely to act sustainably. Knowledge is just one of many things that can influence behavior. Previous research has shown that cooperation may help people act in an environmentally friendly way, and that having educational experiences in the environment may also promote pro-environmental experiences. This research investigated the combined impact of environmental knowledge and cooperative situations in a web simulation. The authors hypothesized that students majoring in environmental topics would act more in favor of the environment, and that cooperative settings would overcome the lack of knowledge among non-environmental students.
Participants in this study were 107 university students in Cordoba, Spain. The students used a web-based simulator called Irrigania, which was a game-like software program that explored the shared use of water resources in a simulated village. Among participants, 61 students studied environmental science and 46 studied education, and more were female (73 participants) than male (32 participants). The researchers selected education students to compare to environmental science students because the education curriculum at the university did not include environmental topics. Within both disciplines (environmental science or education) and genders (male or female), participants were randomly assigned to cooperative or competitive scenarios. In the cooperative scenario, participants could communicate and strategize at 3 points during the duration of the simulation. In the competitive scenario, participants could not interact and were only informed of the recent annual incomes of their competitors.
During the simulation, participants could choose from 3 levels of irrigation, ordered least to most selfishly: rainfed irrigation, river water irrigation, and groundwater irrigation. Each level of irrigation had tradeoffs with regards to cost, revenue, and impact on the environment. For those in the competitive group, the main goal was simply to obtain the largest individual income; in the cooperative group, the goal was to achieve high village income. Data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire that recorded information about the village, the individual decisions, and outcomes. The data metric was “selfish irrigation,” measured as the difference between number of fields irrigated with groundwater and those irrigated with rainwater. This data was then analyzed to compare cooperation and competition, environmental background and education background, and any interaction between those 2 divisions.
The results indicated that knowledge did influence behavior during the simulation. The results also showed the importance of cooperative settings, and the study found that that cooperation could overcome the lack of knowledge on environmental issues. In general, education students acted more selfishly than environment students. Cooperative conditions fostered less selfish behavior than competitive conditions. Environmental science students exhibited similar amounts of selfishness in competitive and cooperative conditions, but education students were more selfish in a competitive scenario. Interestingly, in cooperation conditions, environmental science and education students showed similar amounts of selfishness.
One limitation of the study is that people may behave differently with the knowledge that they are being observed. Additionally, other variables may influence the results outside of a student's knowledge gained through coursework. This study involved a small number of students in Spain, and the findings may not be generalizable to other populations in different contexts.
The researchers recommended efforts to incorporate environmental coursework across disciplines. Because this study found that cooperative situations can overcome the lack of knowledge, the researchers also suggest that we foster more spaces for cooperation, especially around environmental issues.
The Bottom Line
<p>Understanding the relationship among knowledge, cooperation, and behavior may be key to a sustainable future. When university students with varying levels of knowledge on environmental issues participated in a water-sharing simulation game, this research found that with enough knowledge about the environment, people will act pro-environmentally even in competitive setting. In addition, students who lacked knowledge behaved in a more pro-environmental way through fostering cooperation. Cooperation can help conserve natural resources as well as create widespread individual benefits, in terms of access to resources and economics. This research shows that through knowledge and cooperation, people may feel more empowered to act pro-environmentally.</p>
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