Altruism, moral norms and social approval: Joint determinants of individual offset behavior

Blasch, Julia; Ohndorf, Markus

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.04.024

Cited by 31 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…5 For example, Bartling, Weber and Yao (2015) find evidence for socially responsible behavior in a competitive market set-up, where sellers decide on a price and on which type of product, dirty or clean, they want to offer for sale, and buyers decide which product to buy. 6 Similarly, in our experiment, the availability of offset payments could modify behavior in the initial double-auction in comparison to the results of Plott (1983).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…They show that demand for voluntary carbon offsetting is highly context-dependent and strongly varies with the types of mitigation projects offered. Blasch and Ohndorf (2015) test a theoretical framework in which different motivations (pure and impure altruism, internalized norms, and social recognition) for environmental offsetting are considered. They find that motivation for individual offset purchases varies between different types of consumers; WTP for carbon offsetting is mainly driven by internalized norms to avoid pollution (ascribed responsibility), and partly by income, whereas an individual's probability to offset seems to be largely influenced by the expected social (dis)approval for Our paper is also related to recent empirical papers that study the impact of green products on energy consumption using field data.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 1 See also Capoor and Ambrosi (2009), Peters-Stanley and Yin (2013) and Hamrick and Gallant (2017) for overviews of the state of carbon markets. 2 In fact, there is a growing literature that links feelings of personal responsibility to voluntary carbon offset purchases (e.g., Brouwer et al, 2008;Blasch and Farsi, 2014;Blasch and Ohndorf, 2015;Lange et al, 2017;Lange and Ziegler, 2017) which we discuss in Section 2 in detail. 3 Controlled laboratory experiments have been used to evaluate economic behavior and environmental policy for several decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vandenbergh and Steinemann (2007) have argued that activation for an emerging norm for carbon neutrality could have a major impact on reducing carbon emissions. 6 Bartling, Weber and Yao (2015) show that while standard theory predicts only the cheaper good will be produced and traded, in an experiment conducted in Switzerland, a significant proportion of products traded are socially responsible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral sources of the demand for carbon offsets: an experimental study

KÃ1⁄4hn

Uler

2019

Exp Econ

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Voluntary carbon offsets-that is, payments toward the reduction of damages to the environment-present firms and individuals with the opportunity to neutralize (or lessen) their carbon footprints. In this paper we report on a controlled laboratory experiment to understand the behavioral motivations driving the purchase of carbon offsets, in addition to investigating the effect of the introduction of voluntary offset markets on emission-causing activities. We find that, when the price is sufficiently low, demand for offsets is stable. Behavior is, however, heterogeneous. Individuals with a high (low) personal-responsibility index increase their offset purchases as their own damage (total damages) increases, but do not condition their offsetting behavior on the total damages (own damages) generated. We also show that, when individuals trade in competitive markets, the availability of offsets does not affect the total damages generated. Instead, introduction of carbon offsets increases individuals' earnings by eliminating some of the damages ex-post.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavioral sources of the demand for carbon offsets: an experimental study

KÃ1⁄4hn

Uler

2019

Exp Econ

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“…[56][57][58][59][71][72]. Fortunately, there is a growing body of literature looking at what increases intrinsic motivation and how behavior change can be more persistent [66,[161][162][163][164][165][166][167]. It is certainly time to strengthen the connections between the REDD+ debate and this literature.…”

Section: Subjects and Justifications: What Do Rewards And Punishmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Rewards and Punishments in the Brazilian Amazon: Practical Implications of the REDD+ Discourse

Gebara

Agrawal

2017

Forests

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Abstract:Through different policies and measures reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and enhancing conservation (REDD+) has grown into a way to induce behavior change of forest managers and landowners in tropical countries. We argue that debates around REDD+ in Brazil have typically highlighted rewards and punishments, obscuring other core interventions and strategies that are also critically important to reach the goal of reducing deforestation, supporting livelihoods, and promoting conservation (i.e., technology transfer and capacity building). We adopt Foucault's concepts of governmentality and technologies of governance to provide a reading of the REDD+ discourse in Brazil and to offer an historical genealogy of the rewards and punishments approach. By analyzing practical elements from REDD+ implementation in the Brazilian Amazon, our research provides insights on the different dimensions in which smallholders react to rewards and punishments. In doing so, we add to the debate on governmentality, supplementing its focus on rationalities of governance with attention to the social practices in which such rationalities are embedded. Our research also suggests that the techniques of remuneration and coercion on which a rewards and punishments approach relies are only supporting limited behavioral changes on the ground, generating negative adaptations of deforestation practices, reducing positive feedbacks and, perhaps as importantly, producing only short-term outcomes at the expense of positive long-term land use changes. Furthermore, the approach ignores local heterogeneities and the differences between the agents engaging in forest clearing in the Amazon. The practical elements of the REDD+ discourse in Brazil suggest the rewards and punishments approach profoundly limits our understanding of human behavior by reducing the complex and multi-dimensional to a linear and rational simplicity. Such simplification leads to an underestimation of smallholders' capacity to play a key role in climate mitigation and adaptation. We conclude by highlighting the importance of looking at local heterogeneities and capacities and the need to promote trust, altruism and responsibility towards others and future generations.

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Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study

et al. 2021

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Purchases of voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) are growing tremendously. At the same time, the number of activities and products for which VCOs are available is increasing. Experts discuss whether offering VCOs is exclusively associated with positive effects on the environment or if it instead may lead to increased consumption of environmentally critical products. To date, empirical evidence on such adverse effects is scarce. Therefore, this study uses a randomized controlled trial design to investigate how the availability of VCOs affects consumers' choices for environmentally critical products. The results suggest that when VCOs are available, the likelihood of environmentally critical consumption increases. From a mental accounting perspective, our findings support the theoretical rationale of VCOs as an instrument for moral licensing. Additionally, our results indicate that individuals tend to trivialize the harmfulness of the environmentally critical product and overestimate the effectiveness of VCOs for environmental protection, which we consider strategies for reducing cognitive dissonance and guilt.

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Altruism, moral norms and social approval: Joint determinants of individual offset behavior

Cited by 31 publications

References 41 publications

Behavioral sources of the demand for carbon offsets: an experimental study

Behavioral sources of the demand for carbon offsets: an experimental study

Beyond Rewards and Punishments in the Brazilian Amazon: Practical Implications of the REDD+ Discourse

Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study

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