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Increasing volumes of solid waste, implicated in environmental pollution and health problems, are central to the current environmental crisis. In two randomized field experiments, we demonstrate that convenience dramatically boosts recycling and composting rates in multi-family dwellings and university residences. When compost bins were placed on each floor in a multi-family residence, instead of on the ground floor, composting rates increased by 70%, diverting 27 kilograms of compost from the landfill per unit per year. When recycling stations were placed just meters from suites in student residences, instead of in the basement, recycling increased by 147% (container), and 137% (paper), and composting increased by 139%, diverting 23, 22, and 14 kilograms of containers, paper, and compost, respectively, from the landfill per person per year. Simply making recycling and composting convenient can significantly increase waste diversion, and as such this single intervention has important implications for waste management and environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous observational work revealed that transient populations in a sustainable building disposed of waste more accurately when compared to patrons in a non-sustainable building. The current study uses an experimental design to replicate this observed effect and to investigate whether or not the built environment influences motivational factors to impact behavior. We find support that a building designed and built to communicate an atmosphere of sustainability can influence waste disposal behavior. Participants in the sustainable building used the garbage receptacle significantly less and compensated by tending to select the containers and organics receptacle more, which actually resulted in more errors overall. Our findings suggest that building atmospherics can motivate people to recycle more. However, atmospherics alone do not appear to be sufficient to elicit the desired performance outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case comment on Canada (Attorney General) v Bedford examines the doctrinal developments of section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Specifically, Bedford discussed three critical aspects of section 7: 1) the role of stare decisis, 2) the issue of causation, and 3) the substantive principles of procedural fairness analysis. The author identifies access to section 7 as the Supreme Court of Canada's predominant concern in the development of section 7 doctrine in Bedford. Unfortunately, this concern has not made for a necessarily more workable or more coherent doctrine. This paper attempts to show how the doctrinal developments in Bedford, especially those relating to the substantive principles of fundamental justice analysis, may 1) do little to benefit a marginalized claimant's opportunity to succeed, and 2) be inappropriate to resolve the complex systemic issues that section 7 readily attracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We show that the Big Five significantly influence social attention. [•] Openness to Experience is the strongest predictor of social attention. [•] Contrary to findings in live situations, Openness is a negative predictor. [•] Extraversion is positively related to gaze duration. [•] Agreeableness is positively related to total fixation time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Current theory suggests that interpersonal synchrony is an important social behavior in that it not only serves as a form of "social glue," but it also arises automatically in a social context. Theorists suggest potential mechanisms for interpersonal synchrony, ranging from a "low-level" social-perceptual system account to a "high-level" social-motivational explanation. Past studies that suggest synchrony can be influenced by social factors do not discriminate between these accounts. The current investigation seeks to isolate the effect of the high-level social system on interpersonal synchrony by investigating the effects of spatial proximity on unintentional coordinated tapping between two naive participants. Dyads performed a synchronization-continuation task either in the same room, in different rooms, or in different rooms but with the ability to hear each other tap. Participant taps were represented by a box that flashed on the monitor to control visual information across all three conditions. Same-room dyads had increased coordination over different-room dyads, whereas dyads that shared audio but were in different rooms showed an intermediate level of coordination. The present study demonstrates that shared space, independent of perceptual differences in stimuli, can increase unintentional coordinated tapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have found that participants consistently look less at social stimuli in live situations than expected from conventional laboratory experiments, raising questions as to the cause for this discrepancy and concerns about the validity of typical studies. We tested the possibility that it is the consequences of a potential social interaction that dictates one's looking behaviour. By placing participants in a situation where the social consequences of interacting are congruent with social norms (sharing a meal), we find an increased preference for participants to look at each other. Dyads who were particularly interactive also looked more at the other person than dyads who did not interact. Recent landmark studies have shown that in real world settings people avoid looking at strangers, but we show that in a situation with a different social context the opposite holds true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to develop a more sustainable society, the wider public will need to increase engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. Psychological research on pro-environmental behaviors has thus far focused on identifying individual factors that promote such behavior, designing interventions based on these factors, and evaluating these interventions. Contextual factors that may also influence behavior at an aggregate level have been largely ignored. In the current study, we test a novel hypothesis - whether simply being in a sustainable building can elicit environmentally sustainable behavior. We find support for our hypothesis: people are significantly more likely to correctly choose the proper disposal bin (garbage, compost, recycling) in a building designed with sustainability in mind compared to a building that was not. Questionnaires reveal that these results are not due to self-selection biases. Our study provides empirical support that one's surroundings can have a profound and positive impact on behavior. It also suggests the opportunity for a new line of research that bridges psychology, design, and policy-making in an attempt to understand how the human environment can be designed and used as a subtle yet powerful tool to encourage and achieve aggregate pro-environmental behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]