Hawaii's water conservation campaign: different public service announcements message appeal types and their combined effects on students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

Abstract

This research sought to determine the relative effectiveness of two different water conservation PSAs from Hawaii in raising outcome evaluation, self-efficacy (and outcome expectancy) and intent to conserve water among those viewers who viewed them. The two PSAs differ in message appeal type; one tries to persuade viewers that the outcome of conserving water is positive, the other suggests useful techniques for how to conserve more water. The experimental design involved a 2x2 factorial setup with four groups. A control group was presented neither PSA, two groups were presented either one PSA or the other, and a fourth group was presented both. Questionnaires were administered after each presentation, measuring the dependent variables. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the results. Due to several limitations in the design of this experiment, no significant differences were found between the four groups with regard to dependent variables measured through the questionnaire. The relatively high overall marks by most participants in outcome evaluation, self-efficacy, and intent are probably a consequence of the face that most participants indicated that they had either already seen water conservation PSAs on Oahu, or were already aware of water conservation efforts on Oahu.