The BWA behaviour change database: Research added recently (9/7)

BehaviourWorks researchers have spent several years curating a database of over 5,000 behaviour change publications. This database is used to inform many of our research projects and is now available for others to use. To access the database, please use this link to download a RIS file (from Google Drive), that can be added to any research management platform (e.g. Mendeley, EndNote or Zotero). Note that the database file that we host is updated every three months so it may not have the latest records.

Every month we review new articles and research and add all that are use to our database. Here are some of the more useful/interesting records that we added recently:

The Power of a Bad Example: A Field Experiment in Household Garbage Disposal

Field-experimental studies have shown that people litter more in more littered environments. Inspired by these findings, many cities around the world have adopted policies to quickly remove litter. While such policies may avoid that people follow the bad example of litterers, they may also invite free-riding on public cleaning services. This paper reports the results of a natural field experiment where, in a randomly assigned part of a residential area, the frequency of cleaning was reduced from daily to twice a week during a three-month period. Using high-frequency data on litter at treated and control locations before, during, and after the experiment, we find strong evidence that litter begets litter. However, we also find evidence that some people start to clean up after themselves when public cleaning services are diminished

Epistemic spillovers: Learning others’ political views reduces the ability to assess and use their expertise in nonpolitical domains

On political questions, many people prefer to consult and learn from those whose political views are similar to their own, thus creating a risk of echo chambers or information cocoons. We test whether the tendency to prefer knowledge from the politically like-minded generalizes to domains that have nothing to do with politics, even when evidence indicates that politically like-minded people are less skilled in those domains than people with dissimilar political views. Participants had multiple opportunities to learn about others’ (1) political opinions and (2) ability to categorize geometric shapes. They then decided to whom to turn for advice when solving an incentivized shape categorization task. We find that participants falsely concluded that politically like-minded others were better at categorizing shapes and thus chose to hear from them. Participants were also more influenced by politically like-minded others, even when they had good reason not to be. These results replicate in two independent samples. The findings demonstrate that knowing about others’ political views interferes with the ability to learn about their competency in unrelated tasks, leading to suboptimal information-seeking decisions and errors in judgement. Our findings have implications for political polarization and social learning in the midst of political divisions.

Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly.

Most texts on writing style encourage authors to avoid overly-complex words. However, a majority of undergraduates admit to deliberately increasing the complexity of their vocabulary so as to give the impression of intelligence. This paper explores the extent to which this strategy is effective. Experiments 1-3 manipulate complexity of texts and find a negative relationship between complexity and judged intelligence. This relationship held regardless of the quality of the original essay, and irrespective of the participants' prior expectations of essay quality. The negative impact of complexity was mediated by processing fluency. Experiment 4 directly manipulated fluency and found that texts in hard to read fonts are judged to come from less intelligent authors. Experiment 5 investigated discounting of fluency. When obvious causes for low fluency exist that are not relevant to the judgement at hand, people reduce their reliance on fluency as a cue; in fact, in an effort not to be influenced by the irrelevant source of fluency, they over-compensate and are biased in the opposite direction. Implications and applications are discussed

Acting green elicits a literal warm glow

Environmental policies are often based on the assumption that people only act environmentally friendly if some extrinsic reward is implicated, usually money. We argue that people might also be motivated by intrinsic rewards: doing the right thing (such as acting environmentally friendly) elicits psychological rewards in the form of positive feelings, a phenomenon known as warm glow. Given the fact that people's psychological state may affect their thermal state, we expected that this warm glow could express itself quite literally: people who act environmentally friendly may perceive the temperature to be higher. In two studies, we found that people who learned they acted environmentally friendly perceived a higher temperature than people who learned they acted environmentally unfriendly. The underlying psychological mechanism pertains to the self-concept: learning you acted environmentally friendly signals to yourself that you are a good person. Together, our studies show that acting environmentally friendly can be psychologically rewarding, suggesting that appealing to intrinsic rewards can be an alternative way to encourage pro-environmental actions.

Seeing change and being change in the world: The relationship between lay theories about the world and environmental intentions

Scientists predict that climate change will cause substantial changes to life on our planet, and that human behavior should change substantially in order to mitigate its impact. Hence, we propose that lay theories of change are among the psychological factors that can influence pro-environmental engagement. We predicted that people who think of the world as relatively stable will be more likely to be skeptical about anthropogenic climate change. They should also be less likely to believe that society can change in ways that could alleviate or avert its consequences. In turn, their skepticism about climate change and their beliefs about mitigation are expected to influence their willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior. A survey conducted with American adults (N = 297) supported these hypotheses; lay theories predicted people's beliefs about climate change and about the possibility of mitigation, which in turn influenced their intentions to engage in pro-environmental behaviors.

Guilty conscience: motivating pro-environmental behavior by inducing negative moral emotions

Conceptual frameworks in the realm of climate-related policy, attitudes and behavior frequently argue that moral emotions play a crucial role in mobilizing pro-environmental action. Yet, little is known about the direct impact of moral emotions on environmental attitudes and behavior. Drawing on emotion research in the context of intergroup relations, the current paper investigates the role of guilty conscience (guilt and shame) as well as other emotions (anger, sadness, pride, and emotional coldness) in motivating pro-environmental behavior intentions and actual behavior as a specific form of reparative action. When confronted with human-caused (vs. seemingly natural) environmental damages, participants (N = 114) reported significantly more guilty conscience. Importantly, participants in the human-caused condition were significantly more likely to spontaneously display actual pro-environmental behavior (sign a petition addressing environmental issues).Highlighting its psychological significance in motivating pro-environmental behavior, a guilty conscience mediated the experimental manipulation’s effect on behavioral intentions as well as on actual behavior. We conclude by discussing the potential of moral emotions in developing timely and sustainable climate policies and interventions

Generalized trust narrows the gap between environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior: Multilevel evidence

Research has established that people's environmental concern does not always translate into pro-environmental behavior. On the basis of the social dilemma perspective, the present article examines how this concern-behavior gap can be narrowed. We posit that individuals who are concerned about environmental problems feel reluctant to contribute because they fear being exploited by free riders. We further argue that generalized trust can temper this fear because it allows people to expect others to contribute. Accordingly, we hypothesize that the concern-behavior association is stronger among individuals and societies with higher levels of trust. Findings from multilevel analyses on two international survey datasets (World Values Survey and International Social Survey Programme) support our hypothesis. These findings not only elucidate the concern-behavior gap but also suggest how environmental campaigns can be improved. They also signify the need to explore cross-national variations in phenomena pertaining to environmental concern and behavior.

Raising Students Awareness to Climate Change: An Illustration With Binding Communication

Much energy and money is dedicated to increasing climate change awareness and pro-environmental behaviors. Mere communication campaigns, which are often alarmist, are widely used despite their uncertain effectiveness. We suggest that using binding communication strategies would prove more adequate. Binding communication consists in combining a persuasive message and a preparatory act linked to the persuasive message. This procedure is generally reported to be more efficient than a single persuasive message at influencing attitudes and behavior. This hypothesis was tested in a study in which students were presented with a classic climate change communication with/without a preparatory act (participant-proposed solutions). Results showed that although knowledge about climate change increased in both conditions, attitudes and behavior follow-through were positively affected only in the binding communication condition. Therefore, in addressing climate change and global warming behaviors, pairing a persuasive message with personal solution generation is a potentially valid and useful technique.

To access the database of over 5,000 behaviour change publications, please use this link.