Abstract
A major obstacle for promoting sustainable (e.g. ecological) consumer behaviors is people’s negative attitude towards these. We tested the potential of a persuasion technique for improving these attitudes. We propose that cueing ecological behaviors people usually engage in, increases the accessibility of previously performed ecological behavior in the memory. As several theories suggest attitudes are inferred from previous behavior, we expected the increased ease of retrieval of ecological actions to result in more favorable attitudes towards these. Two studies confirmed this hypothesis, and further research will verify the success of the technique in promoting actual environmental behavior. Implications for setting up effective social marketing campaigns are discussed.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
- Social Marketing
- Environmental Behavior
- Environmental Attitude
- Experimental Social Psychology
- External Motivation
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J., Behrens, W.W.: The limits to growth - A report for the Club of Rome project on the predicament of mankind. Universe Books, New York (1972)
Fuchs, D.A., Lorek, S.: Sustainable Consumption governance: A history of promises and failures. Journal of Consumer Policy 28, 261–288 (2005)
Greening, L.A., Green, D.L., Difiglio, C.: Energy efficiency and consumption - The rebound effect - A survey. Energy Policy 28, 389–401 (2000)
Ajzen, I.: The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50, 179–211 (1991)
McCarthy, J.A., Shrum, L.J.: The recycling of solid wastes: Personal values, value orientations, and attitudes about recycling as antecedents of recycling behavior. Journal of Business Research 20, 53–62 (1994)
Bem, D.J.: Beliefs, attitudes, and human affairs. Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA (1970)
Bem, D.J.: Self-perception theory. In: Berkowitz, L. (ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology, Academic Press, New York (1972)
Buss, D.M., Craik, K.H.: The act frequency approach to personality. Psychological Review 90, 105–126 (1983)
Holland, R.W., Verplanken, B., Van Knippenberg, A.: On the nature of attitude-behavior relations: the strong guide, the weak follow. European Journal of Social Psychology 32, 869–876 (2002)
Tversky, A., Kahneman, D.: Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology 5, 207–232 (1973)
Schwarz, N., Strack, F., Bless, H., Klumpp, G., Rittenauer-Schatka, H., Simons, A.: Ease of retrieval as information: another look at the availability heuristic. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 61, 195–202 (1991)
Menon, G., Raghubir, P.: Ease-of-Retrieval as an Automatic Input in Judgments: A Mere-Accessibility Framework? Journal of Consumer Research 30, 230–243 (2003)
Feldman, J.M., Lynch, J.G.: Self-Generated Validity and Other Effects of Measurement on Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology 73, 421–435 (1988)
Grice, H.P.: Logic and conversation. In: Cole, P., Morgan, J.L. (eds.) Syntax and semantics: Speech acts, Academic Press, New York (1975)
Schwarz, N.: Judgment in a social context: Biases, shortcomings, and the logic of conversation. In: Zana, M.P. (ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology, Academic Press, San Diego (1994)
Kaiser, F.G., Wölfing, S., Fuhrer, U.: Environmental attitude and ecological behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology 19, 1–19 (1999)
Minton, A.P., Rose, R.L.: The Effects of Environmental Concern on Environmentally Friendly Consumer Behavior: An Exploratory Study - Dimensions of Environmental Concern. Journal of Business Research 40, 37–48 (1997)
Gill, J.D., Crosby, L.A., Taylor, J.R.: Ecological concern, attitudes, and social norms in voting behavior. Public Opinion Quarterly 50, 537–554 (1986)
Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M.: A motivational approach to self: Integration in personality. In: Dienstbier, R. (ed.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1991)
Cialdini, R.B.: Influence: science and practice. Allyn and Bacon, Boston (2001)
Freedman, J.L., Fraser, S.C.: Compliance without pressure: the foot-in-the-door technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 4, 195–202 (1966)
Spangenberg, E.R., Greenwald, A.G.: Social influence by requesting self-prophecy. Journal of Consumer Psychology 8, 61–89 (1999)
Burger, J.M., Caldwell, D.F.: The Effects of Monetary Incentives and Labeling on the Foot-in-the-Door Effect: Evidence for a Self-Perception Process. Basic and applied social psychology 25, 235–241 (2003)
Kraut, R.E.: Effects of social labeling on giving to charity. Journal of experimental social psychology 9, 551–562 (1973)
Miller, R.L., Brickman, P., Bolen, D.: Attribution versus persuasion as a means for modifying behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 31, 430–441 (1975)
Aronson, E., Fried, C., Stone, J.: Overcoming denial and increasing the intention to use condoms through the induction of hypocrisy. American Journal of Public Health 81, 1636–1638 (1991)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cornelissen, G., Pandelaere, M., Warlop, L. (2006). Cueing Common Ecological Behaviors to Increase Environmental Attitudes. In: IJsselsteijn, W.A., de Kort, Y.A.W., Midden, C., Eggen, B., van den Hoven, E. (eds) Persuasive Technology. PERSUASIVE 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3962. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11755494_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11755494_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-34291-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-34293-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)