Social Judgment Theory Application

Social Judgment Theory :Recycling

• Recycling is an inconvenience for me

• There is not enough space in my household to recycle

• It takes too much time to recycle.

• Recycling saves us energy

• Recycling helps preserve resources and protects habitats.

• I understand the value of recycling, but it is an inconvenience to me.

• If I were paid to do it, I would recycle.

• Everyone must recycle

There are many positions on the topic of recycling and I am going to start by analyzing some of these attitudes using the “Social Judgment Theory”. The Social Judgment Theory gives a range of possible attitudes towards a topic. An “anchor position,” is a position that directly reflects a person’s viewpoint. My anchor point on the topic of recycling is “I understand the value of recycling, but it is an inconvenience to me.” Where I live I have to drive to a specific place to drop off the trash. I could actually take the time to recycle, I just don’t.

I believe the “extreme,” positions definitely vary by person. What may extreme to me, may not be extreme to someone else. I believe the extreme positions are “Everyone must recycle,” and “If I were paid to do it I would recycle.” I believe everyone has a choice so no one should make us do it, and although paying people to recycle may help, it is a lot to manage. I believe that paying someone to recycle would be too much to have control over. The “it’s better than doing nothing,” would fall under an attitude or acceptance. It’s definitely tolerable, understandable, and acceptable.

There are three attitudes for the Social Judgment Theory and those are latitude of acceptance, non-commitment, and rejection. I started out with latitude acceptance and I chose “it takes too much time to recycle,” and “recycling saves us energy.” I chose those two for latitude or acceptance because both are true and understandable. For latitude of non- commitment I chose “getting paid to recycle.” It could be a great idea but I think managing that would be very hard to do. It’s an incentive to get people to recycle but would it actually work? I’m definitely on the fence about that one. For the latitude of rejection I chose “everyone must recycle,” because I don’t feel like the issue of recycling is dangerous enough to make everyone do it. I just don’t feel like the world is there with that issue yet.

To push someone to the extreme position would take a very good argument. I remember a friend of mine berserk when I told her that I recycle when I think about it. Even her reaction didn’t make me want to recycle any more or less. I think to really push someone to an extreme position like I mentioned, it has to be presented dangerous. “Recycle or this may happen,” has to be the approach. Another way to push someone to the extreme position would be to offer every household a recycling bin. I know where I live we have to separate recycling ourselves, and then drive to take it to a specific location. It may seem small but it really makes a difference if you have a specific place designed for it.

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