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The Double-Edged Sword of Ethical Nudges: Does Inducing Hypocrisy Help or Hinder the Adoption of Pro-environmental Behaviors?

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Abstract

To promote ethical and pro-environmental behavior, hypocrisy sometimes is made salient to individuals: i.e., they are made aware that their past behavior does not conform to expressed norms. The fact that this strategy may backfire and may even reduce the likelihood of individuals performing the desired action has been largely overlooked. This paper develops a theory of how hypocrisy stimulates two opposing heuristic processes: one that favors the former, positive outcome (the eco-citizenship effect) and one that renders hypocrisy non-effective (resistance-to-habit-change effect). We test the model and reveal important boundary conditions using the finding of a comprehensive field experiment (1377 consumers). Situational (public vs. private advocacy) and individual factors (low vs. high construal levels) determine which of the competing mechanisms is activated. The paper contributes a novel understanding to managers and scholars of how hypocrisy operates and illuminates the contingencies of when this strategy is beneficial.

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Notes

  1. Another form of hypocrisy is when individuals judge the immoral behavior of others more severely than their own immoral behavior, which is called having double standards (Valdesolo and DeSteno 2008, 2007). In this paper, we focus on the first form of hypocrisy, namely failing to act in a way consistent with one’s own previous statements.

  2. Customers could either win a weekend getaway in the region in which the energy provider operates, one of the two hotel vouchers for a one-night stay, or one of the three gift baskets including local products.

  3. It was indeed planned that some of the collected statements would later be published together with a project report on the website, or integrated into the annual report of the institute.

  4. There was an increase in new registrations for the energy efficiency online app of the energy provider during the time data were collected. However, it was not possible to trace to which experimental group people who registered at the portal belonged due to technological constraints and data privacy issues.

  5. In addition to this binary measure of adoption intention, we also asked participants to indicate their intention to subscribe to the app using three items (7-point Likert scales) adapted from White and Peloza (2009). This measure was used to control if participants declined because they did not want to subscribe to the app immediately.

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Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge that this work has received funding from the nano-tera project HeatReserves. The research described herein is further part of the activities of SCCER CREST, which is financially supported by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI). Further, funding has been received from the Swiss National Science Foundation for a Doc.Mobility grant, Project No. P1SGP1_158812.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Economy and the Environment, University of St. Gallen, Tigerbergstrasse 2, 9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Karoline Gamma & Moritz Loock

  2. Grenoble Ecole de Management, DFR Marketing, 12 Rue Pierre Semard, 38000, Grenoble, France

    Robert Mai

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  1. Karoline Gamma
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Correspondence to Moritz Loock.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Research Involving Human Participants

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study via voluntary participation.

Appendices

Appendix A. Past Transgression Questions

In the past three months, have you always switched off the lights in rooms not in use?

Have you always made sure you did not consume too much electricity at the same time in the last three months (e.g., by avoiding using several electric appliances at the same time)?

  1. 1.

    In the last three months, have you always switched off the stand-by mode on your appliances to save energy?

  2. 2.

    Have you always used the energy-saving programs on your appliances in the last 3 months (e.g., when the dishes were only a little dirty)?

  3. 3.

    Have you regularly checked your electricity consumption in the last 3 months (e.g., by reading the electricity meter)?

  4. 4.

    Have you always walked or taken public transport for shorter distances in the last 3 months to save fuel?

  5. 5.

    Answer categories: No, not always < > Yes, always.

Appendix B: Materials for Manipulating Construal Level Mindset

High-Level Construal Mindset Manipulation

The literature mentions the following reasons why it is important to save energy and consume energy efficiently in the future:

figure a

© Sunny studio / Fotolia.com

Renewable energies can better be integrated into the energy system through the efficient use of energy (e.g., through shifts in energy consumption to times of the day when electricity is produced by renewable energies). This helps to reduce environmental pollution and to mitigate the dangers of climate change. Less environmental pollution increases the quality of life for generations of today and the future.

Through future energy savings and the efficient use of energy, we can conserve our resources so that they remain for future generations.

Through future energy savings and efficient energy consumption we can save money, which in turn reduces energy costs for customers and companies in the future.

Why is it important for you to save energy and use energy efficiently in the future? What do you consider to be the most important reason for fostering energy efficiency in the future?

Please write down in one (or two) sentence/s why—in your personal opinion—it is important to save energy and use energy efficiently in the future. You are welcome to include the above-mentioned reasons in your answer.

Low-Level Construal Mindset Manipulation

The literature mentions the following specific actions regarding how one can save energy and consume energy efficiently today:

figure b

© Aamon / Fotolia.com

Switch off HiFi or TV appliances with the main switch or power plug if not in use, as the stand-by mode requires between 5 and 15 watts.

Look for energy efficiency indicators when buying new electric appliances. The energy efficiency classes A (A+, etc.) guarantee high energy efficiency.

Refrain from using the prewash program and use the energy-saving program on your washing machine or dishwasher for laundry or dishes that are only a little dirty.

How can you save energy and use energy efficiently today? Which specific action would you recommend to foster energy efficiency today?

Please write down in one sentence (or two) how—in your personal opinion—one can save energy and use energy efficiently today. You are welcome to include the above-mentioned activities in your answer.

Appendix C: Description of the Energy Efficiency Online App

Online portals, such as the energy efficiency online portal from your energy provider, offer you the possibility to learn more about how to save energy in your household. This portal provides you with valuable tips about how to optimize your electricity consumption without much effort to reach your energy-saving goals. Furthermore, users of this portal can monitor and analyze their energy consumption by entering their meter reading.

Do you know about and use the energy efficiency portal?

  • No, I do not know about the portal.

  • Yes, I have heard about the portal, but I have not yet registered.

  • Yes, I know the portal and I am already registered on the portal.

Appendix D: Regression Tables for the Mediation Analyses

See Tables 6 and 7.

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Gamma, K., Mai, R. & Loock, M. The Double-Edged Sword of Ethical Nudges: Does Inducing Hypocrisy Help or Hinder the Adoption of Pro-environmental Behaviors?. J Bus Ethics 161, 351–373 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3930-2

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