ARTICLE: U.K. Institute of Practitioners Study Looks at Attitudes, Behavior and Consumption By Emma Hall

Published: July 28, 2008
LONDON (AdAge.com) -- Media are inescapable. They're present in every aspect of life, at all times and in all locations. A realistic approach to media research today has to take into account that we expect to be stimulated constantly without concern for channels.

With this in mind, the U.K.'s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising devised TouchPoints, a consumer-centric survey that looks intimately at daily behavior and media consumption across all platforms in the region.

This study -- the first update to the original done in 2006 -- employed 5,400 participants, each of whom recorded their activities, moods, location and social activity every half hour during the course of a week at the turn of this year. They also completed a substantial questionnaire about their attitudes and behavior.

So the environmental take-away was this -

Sixty-two percent of adults are concerned about the impact of human activity on the environment, and 85% make a real effort to recycle waste. Only 22% feel what they do in life doesn't make any difference to the environment. Low carbon emissions are high on the list of must-haves for 52% of all adults if they were to buy a new car.

Can we say that Americans would think similarly? Should we try at all to get the lowest 22% to recycle or are they a hopeless cause?