1. Define key variables.

1. Create an operational definition (i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of feeling close to people.
   1. For the purposes of this experiment, feeling close to people involves a perceived connection including feelings of emotional attachment toward another person or people.
2. Create an operational definition (i.e., a clear description of exactly what a researcher means by a concept) of environmental consciousness.
   1. For purposes of this experiment, environmental consciousness is defined as a person’s likelihood to value practices that protect the natural world.

2. Conduct the study.

1. Meet the participant in a laboratory/classroom.
2. Provide participant with informed consent, a brief description of the research (getting students’ opinions on various social issues), a sense of the procedure, an indication of potential risks/benefits, the right of withdrawal at any time, and a manner to get help if they experience discomfort.
3. Participant signs informed consent form.
4. Direct participant by saying: “For the next part of the study, I’d like you to sit and look at several pictures. Indicate on each of the index cards how close or connected you feel to the image, where 1 = not at all and 10 = extremely.”
5. Manipulation (3 conditions): participant is directed to view slides of one of the three following sets of pictures.
   1. Feeling-Close-to-People condition: 5 pictures of people together
   2. Feeling-Close-to-Animals condition: 5 pictures of animals together
   3. Control/No connection condition: 5 pictures of everyday, non-living items
6. Give participant 2 surveys (Appendices 1 and 2) and say: “Please take a minute to consider each question and indicate how you feel about each.”
   
   Appendix 1. Survey 1 given to participants. This survey was used to measure attitudes towards recycling.
   
   Appendix 2. Survey 2 given to participants. This survey served as a distractor.
   1. Note that one is the real survey and one is a filler/distractor.
7. While the participant completes the survey, pretend to each lunch out of the participant’s sight.
   1. The meal should have a range of recyclable and non-recyclable items (Recyclable= glass/plastic bottle, paper plate, paper napkin, plastic spoon, and plastic pudding/yogurt container; Non-recyclable= pretzels, grapes, and apple). Also on the table where the meal is eaten is a crumbled up piece of paper and a broken pen.
8. When the participant finishes the surveys, ask the participant to help clear off the table where lunch was eaten so he or she can do the next part of the study.
   1. The room should have two clearly labeled empty bins, one for trash and one for recycling.
9. While the participant clears off the table, the researcher should appear busy looking for/preparing the next part of the study.

3. Debrief.

1. “Thank you for participating. In this study I was trying to determine if feeling a close connection to other people would influence your environmental consciousness, measured by your recycling attitudes (measured via the survey) and behaviors (measured via how many items you recycled when clearing off the table). There were three groups in the study, one group saw pictures of people together, another group saw pictures of animals, and the other group saw pictures of common items. We hypothesized that those in the feeling-close-to-other-people condition would have more favorable attitudes toward recycling and would recycle more.”
2. “We couldn’t tell you about the study’s true purpose or our hypotheses ahead of time because we wanted to get your honest and natural thoughts and reactions. Because of the nature of the deception, it is quite natural for participants to not realize that they were being deceived.”

4. Go through the “Conducting the Study” procedure three times with three different participants: once for the people condition, once for the animal condition, and once for the household items condition.

5. Data Analysis

1. Look at the participant’s survey and circle items 3, 5, and 7.
2. Explain that these three items comprise the participant’s mean recycling attitude score, while the other items are simply distractors.
3. Look in the bins to count the number of properly recycled items. This is the participant’s behavior score.
4. Calculate the means by hand.