{"title":"A Drop in the Ocean? Fostering Water-Saving Behavior and Spillover Through Information Provision and Feedback","authors":"Paul Haggar, Lorraine Whitmarsh, Nicholas Nash","doi":"10.1177/00139165231201371","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Pro-environmental change is essential to address climate change. Impact from behavior change interventions increases if non-target behaviors also change. Here, we explore such behavioral spillover effects following a water conservation behavioral intervention and examine whether they are mediated by changes in relevant identities and beliefs. We used a persuasive intervention to encourage 150 participants to reduce daily shower-times over 14 days to conserve water. The intervention comprised information-provision, eliciting a shower time reduction commitment, and (for half the sample) progress feedback. We found that participants reduced shower time (by 38%) and intended to engage more in water-saving and pro-environmental activities, but we found no evidence of behavioral spillover (i.e., non-targeted intention change was not mediated by change in the target behavior). There was no additional effect on behavior change of receiving feedback. We discuss the implications of these findings for spillover in theory and practice.","PeriodicalId":48374,"journal":{"name":"Environment and Behavior","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environment and Behavior","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165231201371","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Pro-environmental change is essential to address climate change. Impact from behavior change interventions increases if non-target behaviors also change. Here, we explore such behavioral spillover effects following a water conservation behavioral intervention and examine whether they are mediated by changes in relevant identities and beliefs. We used a persuasive intervention to encourage 150 participants to reduce daily shower-times over 14 days to conserve water. The intervention comprised information-provision, eliciting a shower time reduction commitment, and (for half the sample) progress feedback. We found that participants reduced shower time (by 38%) and intended to engage more in water-saving and pro-environmental activities, but we found no evidence of behavioral spillover (i.e., non-targeted intention change was not mediated by change in the target behavior). There was no additional effect on behavior change of receiving feedback. We discuss the implications of these findings for spillover in theory and practice.
期刊介绍:
Environment & Behavior is an interdisciplinary journal designed to report rigorous experimental and theoretical work focusing on the influence of the physical environment on human behavior at the individual, group, and institutional levels.