Once good, always good? Testing nudge’s spillovers on pro environmental behavior

Clot, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4964-825X, Della Giusta, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3959-4451 and Jewell, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4413-6618 (2022) Once good, always good? Testing nudge’s spillovers on pro environmental behavior. Environment and Behavior, 54 (3). pp. 655-669. ISSN 1552-390X doi: 10.1177/00139165211060524

Abstract/Summary

It is a common assumption to believe that encouraging pro environmental behavior (PEB) in one domain would lead to increased PEB in other domains (best-case scenario) or just be restricted to the initial targeted domain (worst-case scenario). Evidence from a rapidly growing literature on moral licensing suggests that interventions targeting behavioral change could lead to an even worse scenario, with individuals starting to underperform in one domain, as a compensation for their good performance in other domains. We propose to study the dynamic of PEBs when individuals are exposed to a specific nudge (priming) via an original experiment designed to capture actual behavior. We found that priming could increase PEB, but does not thwart moral licensing. Primed individuals end up doing worse than non-primed individual under a moral licensing condition. A more comprehensive view of the mechanisms underlying behavioral change is essential to support sustainable policies.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/102133
Identification Number/DOI	10.1177/00139165211060524
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Economics
Publisher	SAGE
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