Political scientists have largely overlooked the issue of effort. It is a seemingly simple concept with great implications for the study of political behavior. With intuition alone we can often classify behaviors as more or less effortful. And many of the behaviors that interest political scientists concern this fundamental concept, but, somehow, we have failed to formally incorporate effort into our theories. Indeed, normatively speaking, citizens will engage the democratic process effortfully, not effortlessly. But what makes a behavior more or less effortful? How does the amount of effort expended in pursuit of a behavior affect the likelihood of actualizing that behavior? To answer these questions I have developed a resource model of political cognition which posits that effortful behaviors are essentially fueled by a limited, but renewable, supply of cognitive resources. In this dissertation I report the results of a series of experiments in which I apply the resource model to collective action behaviors as well as information processing. The results suggest that these behaviors, and mostly likely others as well, are, to a significant degree, dependent upon the sufficient availability of cognitive resources.

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Research on public support for green building has, to date, been incomplete. Understanding the demographics of individuals that support green building has remained secondary to merely determining real opinions on the topic. The identity of supporters and the motivation behind their support is the focus of this research. Specifically, is support for green building dependent on the way in which the issue is framed? This research aims to focus on those that are spreading the message about green building, industry experts, and the mass public. By exposing how green building experts talk about the issue, we may begin to understand why public support for green building has yet to reach the kind of mainstream acceptance other planning and design techniques have,such as New Urbanism. I predict that green building experts perceived low levels of public awareness, with the exception of those within the Northwest region, which I believ will perceive higher levels of awareness. In addition, I assume that industry experts will be most focused on energy efficiency as a primary concept of green building. As for the public, I hypothesize that those aware of green building and individuals age 50 and older will be more likely to support green building. With the introduction of source cues, I expect that support for green building will decrease when respondents received either an environmentalism cue or a government program cue. Using survey instruments, I was able to determine that all green building experts perceive public awareness as low and do, in fact, focus their efforts on energy efficiency. With regards to the public, support was highest among those that are aware, as well as those age 50 and older. In addition, insertion of source cues decreased support for green building, with the government program source cue providing the lowest levels of support for green building.

Cette thèse doctorale démontre que la difficulté pour un consommateur de se rappeler ses expériences passées de consommation d’un produit préféré influence son désir. Plus particulièrement, ce travail étudie comment le désir est influencé par le type d’information, sémantique ou épisodique, que l’individu se rappelle sur ses expériences passées de consommation pendant une tâche de rappel difficile, ainsi que par la difficulté attendue de la tâche de rappel et par la pression du temps. Nous avons utilisé une méthode expérimentale et avons conduit trois études empiriques. Les hypothèses ont été testées à partir de données collectées de trois échantillons différents : des consommateurs Péruviens, Chinois et Français. Les participants sont principalement des étudiants universitaires. Un total d’onze scénarios expérimentaux ont été présentés aux participants, incluant divers types de produits (boissons rafraîchissantes, produits hédoniques et activités de loisir). Notre contribution peut aider les professionnels en marketing à agir en prenant en compte le rappel des consommations gratifiantes passées. Afin d’évoquer davantage de désir chez le consommateur, les conditions devraient rendre difficile le fait pour celui-ci de se rappeler ses expériences gratifiantes de consommation passées ; les marketeurs devraient se focaliser notamment sur l’information sémantique des expériences passées et soumettre le consommateur à une pression temporelle. Cette recherche se focalise sur un rappel holistique d’expériences passées et sur le processus de récupération d’information à partir de la mémoire, et confirme la théorie du processus dual de Chaiken et Trope (1998) / This thesis demonstrates that difficulty in recalling past consumption of a preferred product influences the desire to consume that product. More specifically, this research evaluate how desire is influenced by what kind of information from past consumption experience is recalled (semantic or episodic information) during a difficult recall task, by the expected difficulty of recall task, and by time pressure. An experimental method was adopted and three empirical studies were conducted. Hypotheses were tested on data collected across different samples: Peruvian, Chinese, and French consumers. Participants were principally university students. A total of eleven experimental scenarios were presented to participants including different types of products (soft drinks, hedonic products, and leisure activities). Questionnaires were administrated by web and face-to-face. Our contribution has the potential to help marketers take action regarding the recall of past rewarding consumptions. To evoke more desire, consumers must be conditioned to difficult recalls of past consumptions of preferred products; marketers must specially focus on semantic information of past experiences and condition consumers with a time pressure. The results suggest that the type of information processed (semantic versus episodic) and time pressure influence the effect of the difficult recall of past consumption on desire. This research focuses on a holistic recall of past experiences and the retrieval process of information from memory, and confirms the Chaiken and Trope (1998)’s Dual-Process Theory