Behavioural spillovers unpacked: estimating the side effects of social norm nudges

Julien Picard and Sanchayan Banerjee

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Fighting the climate crisis requires changing many aspects of our consumption habits. Previous studies show that a first pro-environmental action can lead to another. But does this spillover effect persist when nudges foster the initial action? We model the mechanisms leading nudges to alter such behavioural spillovers. In an online experiment (n=2775), we test if encouraging vegetarianism with a social norm nudge alters environmental donations. The nudge is effective in increasing intentions to choose vegetarian food. Using machine learning, we find that a subgroup drives this effect. We also see a positive spillover effect: choosing vegetarian food increases donations. However, the nudge crowds out this spillover effect for the subgroup identified with machine learning. Our results suggest that social norm nudges are effective but crowd out people’s willingness to do more.

Keywords: social norm; meat; climate change; behavioural spillovers; side effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C30 C93 D91 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 77 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp, nep-nud, nep-soc and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:120566

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