 The power of respect for authority and empathy – Leveraging non-cognitive theoretical constructs to trigger environmentally sustainable tourist behaviourOscar Yuheng Zhu, Hongwei Li, Bettina Grün and Sara Dolnicar Annals of Tourism Research, 2024, vol. 105, issue C Abstract: Behavioural change research for environmental sustainability is currently guided almost exclusively by a cognitive paradigm, which assumes that cognitive constructs drive behaviour and must be influenced to change it. This study challenges this dominant paradigm and tests two non-cognitive theoretical constructs – respect for authority and empathy – in the context of reducing buffet plate waste. Respect for authority (in contrast to empathy) passes the manipulation check and significantly reduces plate waste in a quasi-experimental field study in a Chinese hotel, providing proof of concept for a new, urgently needed, re-orientation in behavioural change intervention design. The intervention tested in this study can immediately be deployed by tourism and hospitality businesses who want to make their buffets more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable. Keywords: Plate waste; Field experiment; Attitude; Tourism; Buffet; Chinese tourist (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:anture:v:105:y:2024:i:c:s0160738323001548 DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2023.103681 Access Statistics for this article Annals of Tourism Research is currently edited by John Tribe More articles in Annals of Tourism Research from Elsevier |
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