A zero-cost attention-based approach to promote cleaner streets: A Signal Detection Theory approach in Parisian streets

Rita Abdel Sater; Mathilde Mus; Valentin Wyart; Coralie Chevallier

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0284272

A zero-cost attention-based approach to promote cleaner streets: A Signal Detection Theory approach in Parisian streets

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 26;18(4):e0284272. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284272. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Rita Abdel Sater¹, Mathilde Mus¹, Valentin Wyart¹, Coralie Chevallier¹

Affiliation

¹ Département d'études Cognitives, LNC², Ecole Normale Supérieure, INSERM, Université PSL, Paris, France.

Abstract

In an effort to inform interventions targeting littering behaviour, we estimate how much a change in trash-bag colour increases trash can visibility in Paris. To that end, we applied standard Signal Detection techniques to test how much changing trash-bag colour affects subjects' trash can detection rates. In three pre-registered studies, we found that changing trash bag colour from grey to either red, green or blue considerably increases the perception of bins in British (tourist) and Parisian (resident) samples. We found that changing the bag colour from grey to blue increased visibility the most.

Copyright: © 2023 Sater et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Color Perception
Garbage*
Humans
Paris
Signal Detection, Psychological*

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (EUR FrontCog ANR-17-EURE-0017*) to Coralie Chevallier. It was also made possible by the support and funding of the Paris City Hall Green Spaces and Environment Department (DEVE). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.