We Care About What You Care About: Using Reason-Specific Interventions to Encourage Sustainable Choices

12.02.2026 12:00 – 13:00

MANAGEMENT BROWN BAG SEMINAR

ABSTRACT

Individual behavioral change is essential for climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, interventions encouraging more sustainable choices often do not have the desired effect. To address this, we studied consumers’ mental representation of sustainable behavior across seven situations to understand why they behave (un)sustainably. Using a large language model, we identified relevant reasons for sustainable behavior from responses to open-ended questions about their behavioral choices. Reasons for sustainable behavior can be divided into situation-specific reasons, such as health, which is mainly relevant to food consumption, and general reasons, such as costs, which are relevant across situations. Behavior in some situations is mostly associated with general reasons (such as showering time), while situation-specific reasons primarily drive behavior in other situations (such as meat and dairy consumption). We applied these insights in two longitudinal field experiments, in which respondents received messages encouraging less meat and dairy consumption or reducing their showering time. We randomly varied the message content, using situation-specific or general reasons. Only situation-specific messages significantly reduced respondents’ meat and dairy consumption while only general reasons reduced their showering time during the 7-day study. Our results offer promising opportunities for developing more effective interventions by examining mental representations of the target behavior.

Lieu

Bâtiment: Uni Mail

Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve 40
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Room M 3383, 3rd floor

entrée libre