'Will you buy fewer plastic bottles?' A simple question can change our behavior

"Will you buy fewer plastic bottles?" A simple question can change our behavior

[The conversation] - Published on October 27, 2024in Science-Society

Are you planning to buy fewer plastic water bottles in the future? Maybe not, but now that the question has been put to you, you're bound to think about it. This psychological effect could be used as an incentive to reduce plastic consumption.

Bing Bai, University of MontpellierLaurie Balbo, Grenoble School of Management (GEM) and Marie-Christine Lichtlé, University of Montpellier

Credits Freepik

With a growth rate of 73% over the last decade, the bottled water market is one of the fastest growing in the world. Unfortunately, this consumption has harmful environmental consequences: increased plastic waste, greenhouse gas emissions linked to the production, transport and distribution of bottles, and the over-exploitation of water resources to produce bottled water. These impacts only exacerbate the current ecological crisis. Faced with this situation, reducing our dependence on bottled water is emerging as a crucial environmental issue.

In 2020, a study by Futerra and OnePulse revealed that 80% of those polled said they were ready to change their habits to combat climate change, and 50% of them planned to limit their use of plastic. However, little research has been devoted to communication strategies to reduce bottled water consumption.

Autoprophecies: a question to encourage change

Our research explores the impact of what we call autoprophecies on reducing the purchase of plastic bottled water in the USA, based on a sample of 269 people. Autoprophecies refer to a psychological phenomenon whereby simply asking individuals questions about their future behaviors (e.g., "Will you recycle your packaging?") can increase the likelihood that they will adopt those behaviors. Our study analyzes this process and examines how individual factors can modulate its effects.

Researchers have shown that the effects of self-prophecy can be explained by the theory of cognitive dissonance. When people are asked to predict their future behavior, they may become aware of a discrepancy between their normative beliefs (what they consider socially desirable or acceptable) and their behavior. This inconsistency gives rise to dissonance, or contradiction, which often motivates individuals to modify their actions to bring them more closely into line with their values.

Feeling guilty in advance for an action contrary to our values

In our study, we show the emotional mechanism by which the demand for self-prophecy influences pro-environmental behaviors, via anticipated guilt. In his book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonancethe American psychosociologist Leon Festinger describes dissonance as a state characterized by psychological discomfort, leading to aversion and motivation to change behavior. However, he does not explicitly specify the nature of this discomfort. Later dissonance theorists identified guilt as an emotion provoked by dissonance in certain situations.

We explored this idea by focusing specifically on guilt, hypothesizing that individuals anticipate this feeling when they consider not adopting an ecological behavior. This is particularly the case when this behavior is in line with their normative beliefs (i.e. the social or cultural expectations to which they conform in certain situations). Thus, this anticipation of guilt leads to demands for behaviors aligned with ecological values, to avoid this negative feeling.

To test this hypothesis, we measured guilt in participants exposed to an advertisement containing a prediction question aimed at reducing their purchases of bottled water. These participants felt more guilt in advance than those in the control group, exposed to an ad with no prediction question. This anticipated guilt, in turn, reduced their intention to buy bottled water.

Effects vary from one individual to another

We explored two factors that can influence the effectiveness of the autoprophecy technique: normative beliefs and the motivations that drive people to engage in action.

Previous research has highlighted the importance of normative beliefs. Individuals who are strongly attached to their beliefs are more likely to predict that they will adopt behaviors in line with them, and to actually implement them. We have examined how different types of norms influence intentions. Some norms are descriptive (what most people do), some are injunctive (what we think is expected of us) and some are personal (our own internal moral standards).

The results show that these three types of norms directly influence feelings of anticipated guilt. Participants believe that most people buy fewer bottles, that it is socially expected to do so, and that it corresponds to their personal beliefs. The stronger these norms, the greater the anticipated guilt in the event of non-compliance. However, we observed no interaction between norms and the prediction question. This suggests that a prediction question does not make normative beliefs more salient at the moment of prediction, and that they therefore do not guide participants in their decision-making.

We also studied approach motivation, i.e. the desire to engage in actions that provide positive experiences or rewards. In this way, we can measure a so-called BAS score (for behavioral approach system): individuals with the highest scores are more likely to try to achieve their goals, whether concrete (e.g. reaching or grasping an object), or more abstract (e.g. altruism or productivity). These individuals put more effort into achieving goals that give them pleasure, thus narrowing the gap between what they set out to achieve and what they actually do.

Those most prone to dissonance are those least likely to achieve their goals

Contrary to our hypothesis, individuals with a low sensitivity to rewards and the search for positive experiences experience more guilt than those with a high score. Our interpretation is that, although individuals with a low score on this test are less motivated to act to achieve their goals, they become all the more aware of the discrepancy between their current behaviors and their personal norms when asked about it. This heightened awareness of the mismatch between their actions and their norms, even in the absence of strong motivation, generates a stronger sense of anticipated guilt. Consequently, although they have less impetus to act, this anticipation of guilt increases their intention to reduce their consumption of plastic bottles.

Conversely, individuals with high scores seem intrinsically willing to align their actions with their norms, thus reducing their cognitive dissonance. They appear to act proactively to close the gap between their behaviors and their goals, thereby reducing anticipated guilt.

Using autoprophecies in environmental campaigns

The results of our study open up new perspectives for environmental awareness campaigns. Government agencies and NGOs can easily integrate predictive questions into their communications to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior.

Contrary to previous findings, our results did not demonstrate an effect of normative beliefs on the efficacy of self-prediction. If such an effect had been observed, we would have found that the more participants adhered to strong normative beliefs, the more their behavior would have been influenced by self-prophecy, in particular by adapting their actions to match these norms. However, the literature shows that personal norms influence how individuals form their intentions and adopt ecological behaviors. We therefore recommend using personal norms in campaigns using self-prophecies, for example by creating messages that emphasize the need for pro-environmental action and the consequences of inaction.

It should also be noted that this study focuses on behavioral intentions. Previous research, however, has shown the effects of autopropheties on actual (not anticipated) behaviors repeated over time. For example, some studies have documented improvements in recycling over periods of four weeks post-protocol, or an increase in sports club attendance over periods of up to six months post-prediction. These results show that a simple question, using emotional leverage, can really encourage people to change their practices.

Bing Bai, PhD student in Marketing at the University of Montpellier - Lecturer at EDHEC Business School, University of MontpellierLaurie Balbo, Associate Professor of Marketing _ Director of the MSc Marketing and MSc Digital Marketing & Data Analytics Programs, Grenoble École de Management (GEM) and Marie-Christine Lichtlé, University Professor, University of Montpellier

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.

Key words : Economy, Environment, Research, Health, Science, Company

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