An audience segmentation study of native plant gardening behaviors in the United States

• Published in: Landscape and urban planning 2025-04, Vol.256, p.105272, Article 105272
• Main Authors: Champine, Veronica M., Tamlyn, Kaiya, Jones, Megan S., Balgopal, Meena M., Bruyere, Brett, Solomon, Jennifer N., Niemiec, Rebecca M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Audience segmentation; Civic action; Environmental messaging; Pro-environmental behavior; Social diffusion
• ISSN: 0169-2046
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2024.105272

•Groups: Disengaged, Potential Adopters, Potential Amplifiers, and Potential Advocates.•About half of participants (48%) may be willing to engage in collective behavior.•Tailored public engagement may strengthen perceptions of gardening behaviors. Audience segmentation can be used to identify target audiences in environmental public engagement and communication, but few studies have used segmentation to study biodiversity conservation behavior. This study used segmentation to better understand perceptions and behaviors around different types of actions related to native plant gardening. With a United States representative survey (n = 1,200), we measured beliefs and intentions to engage in personal-sphere (i.e., individual), social diffusion (i.e., encouraging others to act), and civic action behavior (e.g., voting). A latent class analysis (LCA) revealed four distinct groups within the population: Disengaged, Potential Adopters, Potential Amplifiers, and Potential Advocates. Each class comprised approximately one-quarter of the United States population. We found that certain groups are more receptive to personal-sphere behavior, while others may be more receptive to social diffusion behavior or civic action behavior. The groups varied by key distinguishing characteristics: perceptions around civic action, previous personal-sphere and social diffusion behavior, and intentions to engage in personal-sphere action. Findings revealed opportunities to create tailored public engagement strategies to engage different groups in urban biodiversity conservation behavior.