Making Change Easy Is Not Always Good

Gilles Grolleau, Naoufel Mzoughi and Deborah Peterson
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Gilles Grolleau: ESSCA - ESSCA – École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers = ESSCA Business School
Deborah Peterson: Crawford School of Public Policy – Australian National University

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Abstract: A first order law of behavioral change is to make change easy. Nevertheless, this recommendation can sometimes backfire, at least for some subgroups. We examine mechanisms which may cause application of this intuitively convincing rule to be counterproductive, namely lack of meaning, the moral licensing effect, and the boredom threat. We suggest a number of hypotheses, based on our review of the behavioral literature in this area, which could be empirically tested in future research. We also propose some practical ways to avoid the "making things easy" trap and make environmental change more attractive.

Keywords: Behavioral change; environment; goals; public policy; public strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-evo
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03843295v1
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Published in Review of Behavioral Economics, 2022, 9 (4), pp.315-331. ⟨10.1561/105.00000161⟩

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Journal Article: Making Change Easy Is Not Always Good (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03843295

DOI: 10.1561/105.00000161

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