Dr Liam Smith - Researcher Profile

Liam Smith

Address

Department of Management
Monash University, Caulfield

Contact Details

Tel: +61 3 990 47107

Email: Liam.Smith@monash.edu


Biography

Focus on people helps wildlife survive

Dr Liam Smith’s research into human behaviour at Australian zoos is underpinning campaigns to save wildlife and its natural habitats around the world. Although human psychology may seem a roundabout way to get there, for Liam the end game has always been to achieve a sustainable environment.

Liam’s approach evaluates how persuasive communication can influence pro-environmental behaviour and is being taken up by zoos around the world. “It’s about what buttons you push, not just for the policy makers, but for the community as well,” he says. “How do we get people to act en masse for better conservation outcomes?”

Liam came to psychology via environmental management and eco-tourism degrees and a research position at Werribee Open Range Zoo. All three helped him realise that the best way to achieve results for wildlife is to change people’s behaviour. 

“I was getting more interested in watching people watching animals, than in watching the animals themselves. It became clear to me that I needed to persuade people about the need to look after wildlife,” he says. “The hard science is fine but unless you can sell it there is no point doing it.”

So Liam swapped from the “hard science” of ecology to the field of persuasion. This led to a PhD, supported by Zoos Victoria, examining people’s emotional experiences at zoos.  Liam’s work has evolved and today he is most interested in how to motivate pro-environmental action through pathways such as emotion and communication.

His research has been influential in the direction of several zoos, including Zoos Victoria.  This new direction, which has behaviour change at the forefront, has led to campaigns such as lobbying for palm oil labelling to help protect orang-utan habitat. More than 130,000 signatures have been gathered for the “Don’t Palm Us Off” campaign and a “Truth in Labelling” Bill prepared for Federal Parliament.

The art of persuasion, says Liam, is essentially about getting other people to care about what you care about. When people are at zoos there are two advantages. One is that people are out of their usual decision-making context. This means that habits will not necessarily dictate their behaviour and they will be more open to suggestion.

Second, he says, a zoo provides a rare opportunity to communicate messages to a receptive mass audience numbering in the millions. “And that can lead to something tangible like behaviour change on a big scale.”

Behaviour change on a large scale is critical to Liam’s next challenge as the director of a new Monash Sustainability Institute initiative. Here, he will combine knowledge from the spectrum of behavioural scientists to tackle some key sustainability issues.

The first collaboration of its kind in Australia, the Behaviour Change Initiative will link behavioural scientists from the fields of economics, marketing, management, psychology, law/policy and education. The researchers will jointly address big-picture, pro-environmental challenges such as how to best influence people to use less power, make better consumer choices and accept carbon pricing.

One of Liam’s current research projects, funded through an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant, involves collaboration with eight Australian zoos and will see him study the effectiveness of efforts to influence pro-environmental behaviour. This includes Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in a sustainable seafood promotion. 

The results from Liam’s persuasion research fulfil a personal aspiration to increase the general public’s understanding of environmental issues. “I think there is a real need for urban humans to stay in touch with nature in some way,” he says.

Keywords

zoos, persuasion for behaviour change, pro-environmental behaviour

Qualifications

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Institution: Monash University
Year awarded: 2009
MPHIL
Institution: Monash University
Year awarded: 2005
TOURISM
Institution: James Cook University / Townsville
Year awarded: 2001
SCIENCE (RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT)
Institution: Australian National University
Year awarded: 1994

Publications

Book Chapters

Smith, L., Weiler, B., Ham, S., 2011, The rhetoric versus the reality: A critical examination of the zoo proposition, in Zoos and Tourism: Conservation, Education, Entertainment?, eds Warwick Frost, Channel View Publications, Bristol UK, pp. 59-68.

Journal Articles

Smith, L.D.G., Weiler, B.V., Smith, A.M., Van Dijk, P.A., 2012, Applying visitor preference criteria to choose pro-wildlife behaviors to ask of zoo visitors, Curator: The Museum Journal [P], vol 55, issue 4, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Hoboken NJ USA, pp. 453-466.

Ramkissoon, H., Weiler, B., Smith, L.D.G., 2012, Place attachment and pro-environmental behaviour in national parks: The development of a conceptual framework, Journal of Sustainable Tourism [P], vol 20, issue 2, Routledge, Abingdon UK, pp. 257-276.

Smith, L.D.G., Curtis, J.M., Mair, J.F., Van Dijk, P.A., 2012, Requests for zoo visitors to undertake pro-wildlife behaviour: how many is too many?, Tourism Management [P], vol 33, Elsevier, Amsterdam Netherlands, pp. 1502-1510.

Van Dijk, P.A., Smith, L.D.G., Weiler, B.V., 2012, To re-enact or not to re-enact? Investigating the impacts of first- and third-person interpretation at a heritage tourism site, Visitor Studies [P], vol 15, issue 1, Routledge, Philadephia Pennsylvania USA, pp. 48-61.

Van Dijk, P., Smith, L., Cooper, B., 2011, Are you for real? An evaluation of the relationship between emotional labour and visitor outcomes, Tourism Management [P], vol 32, issue 1, Pergamon, United Kingdom, pp. 39-45.

Smith, L., Ham, S., Weiler, B., 2011, The impacts of profound wildlife experiences, Anthrozoos [P], vol 24, issue 1, Berg Publishers, Oxford UK, pp. 51-64.

Smith, L., Warwick, A., Ballantyne, R., Packer, J., 2011, Using websites to influence visitor behavior, Journal of the International Zoo Educators' Association [P], vol 47, International Zoo Educators Association, Liebefeld Switzerland, pp. 38-41.

Smith, L., Curtis, J., Van Dijk, P., 2010, What the zoo should ask: The visitor perspective on pro-wildlife behavior attributes, Curator: The Museum Journal [P], vol 53, issue 3, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Inc, USA, pp. 339-357.

Smith, L., Van Dijk, P., Curtis, J., 2010, When does the zoo start to nag? Testing the limits for pro-wildlife behaviour requests, Journal of the International Zoo Educators' Association [P], vol 46, International Zoo Educators Association, Switzerland, pp. 47-50.

Weiler, B.V., Smith, L.D.G., 2009, Does more interpretation lead to greater outcomes? An assessment of the impacts of multiple layers of interpretation in a zoo context, Journal of Sustainable Tourism [P], vol 17, issue 1, Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 91-105.

Smith, L.D.G., 2009, Identifying behaviors to target during zoo visits, Curator: the Museum journal [P], vol 52, issue 1, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc., USA, pp. 101-115.

Smith, L.D.G., Broad, S., Weiler, B.V., 2008, A closer examination of the impact of zoo visits on visitor behaviour, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol 16, issue 5, Routledge, UK, pp. 544-562.

Smith, L.D.G., Broad, S., 2008, Comparing zoos and the media as conservation educators, Visitor Studies, vol 11, issue 1, Routledge, UK, pp. 16-25.

Smith, L.D.G., Broad, S., 2008, Do zoo visitors attend to conservation messages? A case study of an elephant exhibit, Tourism Review International, vol 11, issue 3, Cognizant Communication Corporation, USA, pp. 225-235.

Smith, L.D.G., Weiler, B.V., Ham, S.H., 2008, Measuring emotion at the zoo, Journal of the International Zoo Educators' Association, vol 44, issue 2008, International Zoo Educators' Association, Switzerland, pp. 26-31.

Smith, L.D.G., 2007, A qualitative analysis of profound wildlife encounters, Journal of Dissertations, vol 1, issue 1, Scientific Journals International, USA, pp. i-172.

Conference Proceedings

Broad, S., Smith, L.D.G., 2004, Who educates the public about conservation issues? Examining the role of zoos and the media, International Toursim and Media Conference Proceedings, 24 November 2004 to 26 November 2004, Tourism Research Unit, Monash University, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 15-23.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Accelerating transitions to Water Sensitive Cities by influencing behaviour.
Supervisors:
Newton, F (Joint-co), Smith, L (Joint).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Effects of stakeholders' pressures and sense-making processes on environmental strategy and organisational performance.
Supervisors:
Prajogo, D (Main), Smith, L (Associate), Mcloughlin, I (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
The role of anthropomorphic flagship species in the formation of wildlife conservation behaviour among zoo visitors.
Supervisors:
Weiler, B (Main), Smith, L (Associate).