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2014 Autumn | Education & Outreach, Natural Science & Restoration, Policy & Regulation

Reputation Effects: Motivating Attitudes toward Environmental Stewardship

Student(s):

Thuan Pham

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Michelle Mullin

Partner(s):

  • United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10

Faculty advisor(s):

Tim Billo, Program on the Environment, University of Washington

As an EPA intern, the mission of my internship was to create a regional, user friendly website about Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) regulations. I was interested in learning more about how we can used reputation effects to motivate the individuals, businesses, and the government to behave more responsibly toward bettering their surrounding environment. Taken together, my work shows that reputation effects do play an essential role in helping actors to change their environmental mindset toward greater environmental responsibility. My research shows that reputation effects can incentivize actors to behave more responsibly toward the environment.