Affective Dilemmas: The Impact of Trait Affect and State Emotion on Sustainable Consumption Decisions in a Social Dilemma Task
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In: Environment and Behavior, Vol. 52, No. 1, 01.01.2020, p. 33-59.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Affective Dilemmas
T2 - The Impact of Trait Affect and State Emotion on Sustainable Consumption Decisions in a Social Dilemma Task
AU - Tarditi, Céline
AU - Hahnel, Ulf J.J.
AU - Jeanmonod, Noémie
AU - Sander, David
AU - Brosch, Tobias
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - Developing a more sustainable lifestyle is becoming an important challenge of our times; it is thus crucial to understand the factors that drive resource consumption decisions. We investigated the impact of trait affect and state emotion on individual consumption decisions in social dilemma tasks. Affective factors interacted strongly with the specific structural features of the choice situation. In Experiment 1, participants with high trait affect were especially likely to reduce their consumption when resource scarcity increased, but only when the choice was presented in a gain frame. In Experiment 2, induced guilt led to reduced consumption in the gain frame in participants with high trait affect, whereas induced pride led to increased investments in the loss frame in these participants. Our research highlights the adaptive function of affective factors in decision making in social dilemma tasks and illustrates how emotions may be leveraged to promote more sustainable resource consumption.
AB - Developing a more sustainable lifestyle is becoming an important challenge of our times; it is thus crucial to understand the factors that drive resource consumption decisions. We investigated the impact of trait affect and state emotion on individual consumption decisions in social dilemma tasks. Affective factors interacted strongly with the specific structural features of the choice situation. In Experiment 1, participants with high trait affect were especially likely to reduce their consumption when resource scarcity increased, but only when the choice was presented in a gain frame. In Experiment 2, induced guilt led to reduced consumption in the gain frame in participants with high trait affect, whereas induced pride led to increased investments in the loss frame in these participants. Our research highlights the adaptive function of affective factors in decision making in social dilemma tasks and illustrates how emotions may be leveraged to promote more sustainable resource consumption.
KW - core values
KW - decision framing
KW - decision making
KW - emotions
KW - social dilemma
KW - sustainable consumption
KW - trait affect
KW - Psychology
KW - Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85050552904&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0013916518787590
DO - 10.1177/0013916518787590
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85050552904
VL - 52
SP - 33
EP - 59
JO - Environment and Behavior
JF - Environment and Behavior
SN - 0013-9165
IS - 1
ER -