Motivating Sustainable Behavior Using Cognitive Interventions in Product Design

Abstract

Designing products to encourage sustainable behavior during their use can have significant influence on their total environmental impact. Cognitive interventions can be used to inform users of the importance of sustainable behavior and make users aware of the resources they consume while evoking positive or negative emotions. The first part of this study investigated two methods of cognitive interventions, information (positively and negatively framed) and feedback, and their effectiveness in encouraging users to reduce their napkin consumption in cafés. The number of napkins per transaction illustrated a short-term behavior change for positive information, a longer-term behavior change for negative information, and no change for feedback. In the second phase of this study, a survey was conducted to understand environmental concerns around napkin consumption and emotions and perceived effectiveness of each intervention. Results from 295 valid survey responses showed that the positively framed informative design reminded users to use less napkins in order to save trees and was dominated by positive emotions such as feeling encouraged. The negative information message informed users to use fewer napkins due to the consequences on the environment and was related to negative emotions such as guilt and worry. The feedback intervention’s message was more informative, reminding users that napkins come from trees and the emotions evoked from the intervention closely resembled that of the control. These findings suggest that information and feedback interventions that evoke emotions can be used to promote sustainable behavior.