TY - JOUR
T1 - Green, greener, greenest
T2 - Can competition increase sustainable behavior?
AU - van Horen, Femke
AU - van der Wal, Arianne
AU - Grinstein, Amir
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a grant from the Association for Consumer Research (specifically Transformative Consumer Research) and the Sheth Foundation .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/10/1
Y1 - 2018/10/1
N2 - Today's world is confronted with alarming environmental problems and it becomes increasingly important to enhance people's sustainable behavior. It is therefore key for companies and policy makers to motivate sustainable behavior among both those who are naturally concerned about the welfare of others and are already more likely to be environmentally conscious (“pro-socials”) and those who are generally less motivated to act sustainably, as they are more concerned with maximizing their own benefits or relative advantage over others (“pro-selves”). Contributing to research in persuasion and environmental psychology, the current work investigates a new strategy that could foster the motivation to behave sustainably across both segments of people: competition. Across four studies in the lab, online, and field we find that competition promotes sustainable behavior, as it corresponds with the underlying motivations of pro-selves and, when used as a mean to a sustainable end, it does not alienate pro-socials from continuing to behave sustainably.
AB - Today's world is confronted with alarming environmental problems and it becomes increasingly important to enhance people's sustainable behavior. It is therefore key for companies and policy makers to motivate sustainable behavior among both those who are naturally concerned about the welfare of others and are already more likely to be environmentally conscious (“pro-socials”) and those who are generally less motivated to act sustainably, as they are more concerned with maximizing their own benefits or relative advantage over others (“pro-selves”). Contributing to research in persuasion and environmental psychology, the current work investigates a new strategy that could foster the motivation to behave sustainably across both segments of people: competition. Across four studies in the lab, online, and field we find that competition promotes sustainable behavior, as it corresponds with the underlying motivations of pro-selves and, when used as a mean to a sustainable end, it does not alienate pro-socials from continuing to behave sustainably.
KW - Competition
KW - Pro-selves
KW - Pro-socials
KW - Social Value Orientation
KW - Sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053133495&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.08.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.08.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85053133495
SN - 0272-4944
VL - 59
SP - 16
EP - 25
JO - Journal of Environmental Psychology
JF - Journal of Environmental Psychology
ER -