Identity over nudges? Factors influencing decisions about participation in pro-environmental behaviors

Abstract

The challenges of environmental problems make it important for people to engage in new pro-environmental behaviors. Based on the results of behavior sciences a possible way to help this transition is to use nudges, which are methods that steer people’s decisions towards certain options. On the other hand, empirical evidence is often contradicting regarding the effect of nudges. The current study aimed to test different interventions (descriptive norms, social identity cues, provoking reciprocity, commitment priming and choice architecture), comparing the individual and stacked effects of nudges on participation intentions in pro-environmental programs. 1910 participants in nine conditions were presented posters of three different pro-environmental programs. Binominal logistic regression analysis showed that nudges did not have significant effect on decisions. On the other hand, environmental self-identity proved to be a significant predictor of participation intention in all three programs. The possible explanations of the nudges’ observed inefficiency are discussed in the paper along with the prospects of the seemingly important role of identity in pro-environmental behaviors.