Signage and Protection: The Effect of Moral and Threat Appeals at Reducing Depreciative Behaviors at Rock Art Sites

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Depreciative behaviors are unintentional actions by visitors that damage the resource or impact the experiences of others. Rock art in particular is highly susceptible to these types of behaviors and the damage may be permanent. As visitation to cultural sites, including rock art locations, increases, the opportunity for depreciative behavior likewise increases. While there is extensive research on moral- and threat-appeal messaging around natural resources, there has been surprisingly little research on these types of approaches around cultural resources. This study designed, installed, and assessed the effectiveness of a moral-appeal message using the Norm Activation Theory of Prosocial Behavior, the current Bureau of Land Management (BLM) threat-appeal message, and a no-message control at reducing depreciative behaviors at rock art sites. This research resulted in a significant decrease in depreciative behavior, specifically touching, when the moral-appeal message was installed. Surprisingly, this study found that the BLM threat-appeal message led to an increase in depreciative behaviors as compared to no-message control suggesting that current land management agencies should reevaluate their indirect management approach to protect remote rock art sites. This study strongly recommends replacing the current signs with moral-appeal messaging and investing in future research to preserve rock art.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35607.0