In light of the growing attention that social norm interventions have garnered as policy tools, we review the current body of evidence on their effectiveness with respect to pro-environmental ...behaviors. We identify the various conceptualizations of social norms currently in use and inventory the experimental economics and social psychology literature that has examined the impacts of social norm interventions on pro-environmental behavior. For each study included in this inventory, we note several contextual features, the data collection and analytical methods used, and any significant main effects attributed to the social norm intervention. We also review several theoretical models of behavior that incorporate social norms. Based on this empirical and theoretical review, we draw a number of policy implications and identify avenues for future research on the role of social norms with respect to pro-environmental behavior.
Many organizations, especially businesses, make heavy use of euphemisms when communicating on sensitive issues. We explore whether the use of euphemisms, as opposed to equivalent plain terms, ...influences the moral judgments made by recipients of these messages, notably pertaining to (un)ethical behaviors in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Using six ethical and unethical scenarios in a between-subjects experiment, we find four main results. First, individuals judge ethical actions more favorably when they are presented in euphemistic terms versus in plain terms. Second, euphemisms increase the acceptability of unethical CSR practices, which are judged to be significantly less unethical when described using euphemistic terms relative to plain terms. Third, most examined euphemisms are found to increase (respectively, decrease) the likelihood of stated willingness to sign a petition supporting (respectively, denouncing) the considered practices. Fourth, euphemisms remain effective for respondents who view firms as hypocritical.
Campaigns aiming to encourage people to reduce their energy consumption frequently make three well-intentioned but inadvertent mistakes in their communications strategies. These mistakes are driven ...by a deeply embedded yet often counterproductive popular intuition: that ‘more is better.’ We identify three messaging pitfalls that can result from this assumption, namely that a message will be more persuasive if it emphasizes the greatest number of people engaging in undesirable behavior, the greatest number of victims of such behavior, and the greatest number of reasons why one should adopt particular energy conservation and efficiency measures. We cite experimental evidence demonstrating that these strategies can in fact reduce the persuasive power of a message, and review several underlying psychological mechanisms that may explain these counterproductive effects. Finally, we provide a number of alternative messaging strategies that are likely to improve the performance of energy conservation campaigns.
•Certain energy conservation and efficiency messages may be suboptimal or even counter-productive.•In particular, the assumption that ‘more is better’ may lead to flawed prescriptions.•Recent behavioral science findings support dual-process theories of information processing.•Taking these findings into account can improve the design of energy conservation messages.
Average population density has been a traditional urban sprawl indicator, but it is insufficient to encapsulate its detrimental impacts. We demonstrate that cities of identical average population ...density may be subject to very different levels of car dependency, CO2 emissions and public budget deficits. To capture this, we shed light into the properties of two “density-allocation” indicators: the percentage of urban land in which population density falls below a predetermined threshold value, and the fraction of the population living in such areas. Using unique data, we measure these indicators in more than 1100 urban areas of 29 OECD countries and at three time points: 1990, 2000 and 2014. We identify four different patterns for the coevolution of average population density and these indicators. The results show that densification of urban cores concurs with rapid suburbanization in many cities. We perform intertemporal cross-city and cross-country analyses and discuss the multiple policy implications emerging from them.
•We examine the properties and socioeconomic importance of density-allocation sprawl indicators.•We measure the density-allocation indicators in more than 1100 cities, 29 OECD countries and in three time points: 1990, 2000, 2014.•We identify four patterns for the ways density-allocation indicators coevolve with average population density.•Reducing sprawl through changes in the density-allocation indicators involves different policies than those being effective in increasing average population density.•Core densification may concur with rapid suburbanization.
The stickiness of norms Farrow, Katherine; Romaniuc, Rustam
International review of law and economics,
06/2019, Volume:
58
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
•We study the effects of a formal rule on informal norms enforced by two mechanisms.•Anonymous peer disapproval is no longer effective after a formal rule is removed.•Saving-face, in contrast, ...continues to be an effective form of norm enforcement.•Image concerns therefore appear more resilient than anonymous peer disapproval.•Leveraging image concerns can be a way to foster robust informal norms.
In this paper we study the role of social context, as characterized by different informal norm-enforcement mechanisms, on the deterrence legacy of temporary external regulations. In a public goods game, we create conditions in which a prosocial norm of cooperation is enforced via either anonymous peer punishment or face-saving concerns. In two test treatments, we introduce to these social environments an external regulation that is implemented for a limited period of time and then removed. We observe a significant negative post-intervention effect of this removal in the context of peer disapproval, but no such effect in the context of face-saving concerns. Our findings reveal the importance of the type of norm-enforcement mechanism in determining the robustness of norm adherence in the long term.
Summary
We propose that words can be an object of systematic study in the field of economics and outline an approach to the study of word choice in behavioral economics. We consider words as ...strategic instruments of influence and review how they can impact behaviors in several subtle and distinctive ways, namely through their capacity to elicit affect, support identity and social belonging, evoke linguistic associations, and generate bias arising from variations in fluency. We provide a variety of examples to illustrate the behavioral impacts of words through these mechanisms and provide practical recommendations regarding how words can be harnessed by policymakers to reach socially desirable goals through a consideration of how word‐related behavioral anomalies shape incentives.
•We simulate the evolution of urban transport CO2 emissions in 247 cities up to 2050.•We explore a counterfactual scenario, in which ridesharing proliferates much faster.•The widespread proliferation ...of ridesharing could reduce the aggregate CO2 by 6%.•We show why the effect widely differs across cities and regions of the world.•We discuss the role of ridesharing and related policies in greening future cities.
Could a widespread proliferation of ridesharing services mitigate or exacerbate the carbon footprint of urban passenger transport? Despite having profound policy implications, this question has not yet been answered in the literature. This paper examines that impact ex-ante, by simulating the aggregate travel demand, the choice of transport mode and the resulting CO2 emissions in 247 cities between 2015 and 2050. We find that if ridesharing services receive substantial policy support, CO2 emissions from passenger transport in 2050 will be on average 6.3% lower than their reference level. However, we show that this finding differs widely across cities. The paper identifies the reasons for this variation and the policies that are socially desirable in a given city, conditional on its characteristics.
Behavioral public administration theory suggests that seemingly irrelevant word choice manipulations can influence behavior. We contend that the power of words has frequently been overlooked in the ...COVID-19 crisis. Given that most decisions mobilize System 1 cognition, words can be an important tool in pursuing socially-desirable outcomes. Beyond their substantive content, words choice matters because language operates largely via automatic processes. Based on findings from this literature, words can be harnessed to induce behavioral change aligned with public health objectives. We elucidate several mechanisms through which these effects are likely to occur and suggests concrete applications to the COVID-19 crisis.
Abstract
The conventional wisdom summarized in the adage ‘misery loves company’ suggests that suffering can be made easier to bear if it is also shared by others. Given increasing interest in ...subjective well-being and happiness as constituents of national wealth and priorities in policy-making and organizational management, we empirically investigate the validity of this phenomenon in order to explore whether it may be possible to mitigate decreases in subjective well-being simply by leveraging social comparison. We implement an experimental survey designed to gauge the suitability of this strategy on a representative sample of approximately 2,000 US residents. Our results indicate that, while this hypothesis is indeed borne out among certain populations within the sample, we find stronger and more widespread support for the opposite phenomenon, suggesting rather that ‘happiness hates company’. These novel findings can inform policy interventions aiming to enhance well-being and point to promising avenues for further work.
Health messaging interventions frequently make three well-intentioned but mistaken choices in their communications strategies. To increase their persuasiveness, these messages frequently call ...attention to the greatest possible numbers of people engaging in undesirable behavior, victims of this behavior, and reasons why one should change the behavior. We raise recent research suggesting how and why the intuitively attractive more-is-better heuristic can be unproductive, and suggest ways to overcome these pitfalls.
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