You must separate: How perceived importance and language intensity promote waste separation.

Waste threatens human health and the environment. How can we persuade people to participate in waste separation? In order to address this challenge, the present experimental study (N = 280) investigated the effects of perceived importance (high, medium, low) and language intensity (assertive, non-assertive) on people's intention to separate waste based on the social influence theory and the value-identity-personal norm model. The results showed that high perceived importance and assertive language were positively and significantly associated with waste separation intention.