Dynamic norms drive sustainable consumption: Norm-based nudging helps café customers to avoid disposable to-go-cups
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In: Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 75, No. Part A, 102146, 01.12.2019.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamic norms drive sustainable consumption
T2 - Norm-based nudging helps café customers to avoid disposable to-go-cups
AU - Loschelder, David D.
AU - Siepelmeyer, Henrik
AU - Fischer, Daniel
AU - Rubel, Julian A.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Excess use of disposable to-go-cups constitutes a severe sustainability threat. Behavioral economics and economic psychology suggest various antidotes. In the present paper, we report two studies – a large-scale intervention field study and an experiment – that constitute independent, pre-registered, and open replication attempts of a recently-introduced intervention procedure: dynamic social norms. We tested whether a dynamic norm, along the lines of “more and more customers are switching from to-go-cups to a sustainable alternative. Be part of this movement and choose a reusable mug” – can help café customers to avoid disposable to-go-cups. Data from a fourteen-week intervention experiment with a total of 23,946 hot beverages sold – 18,019 in disposable cups and 5927 in reusable mugs – suggest that a dynamic-norm intervention for sustainable consumption helps customers avoid disposable cups and increases their use of reusable alternatives by 17.3% (or 4.1 percentage points). A follow-up online experiment corroborates this pattern and shows advantageous effects of a dynamic norm relative to a no-norm control condition, a static norm, an injunctive norm, and a combination of static-and-injunctive norm. In light of inconsistent and, at times, failed or even reversed replication results for seminal social norms studies, the present pre-registered studies indicate that dynamic norms are an effective means to facilitate sustainable behavior. We discuss scientific and applied implications and avenues for future research.
AB - Excess use of disposable to-go-cups constitutes a severe sustainability threat. Behavioral economics and economic psychology suggest various antidotes. In the present paper, we report two studies – a large-scale intervention field study and an experiment – that constitute independent, pre-registered, and open replication attempts of a recently-introduced intervention procedure: dynamic social norms. We tested whether a dynamic norm, along the lines of “more and more customers are switching from to-go-cups to a sustainable alternative. Be part of this movement and choose a reusable mug” – can help café customers to avoid disposable to-go-cups. Data from a fourteen-week intervention experiment with a total of 23,946 hot beverages sold – 18,019 in disposable cups and 5927 in reusable mugs – suggest that a dynamic-norm intervention for sustainable consumption helps customers avoid disposable cups and increases their use of reusable alternatives by 17.3% (or 4.1 percentage points). A follow-up online experiment corroborates this pattern and shows advantageous effects of a dynamic norm relative to a no-norm control condition, a static norm, an injunctive norm, and a combination of static-and-injunctive norm. In light of inconsistent and, at times, failed or even reversed replication results for seminal social norms studies, the present pre-registered studies indicate that dynamic norms are an effective means to facilitate sustainable behavior. We discuss scientific and applied implications and avenues for future research.
KW - Business psychology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062240254&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/7f438e72-3f09-3135-a1fa-67dd0a9a457a/
U2 - 10.1016/j.joep.2019.02.002
DO - 10.1016/j.joep.2019.02.002
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85062240254
VL - 75
JO - Journal of Economic Psychology
JF - Journal of Economic Psychology
SN - 0167-4870
IS - Part A
M1 - 102146
ER -