Eco-friendly labeling biases judgments of environmental impact

IF 7 1区心理学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Journal of Environmental Psychology Pub Date : 2025-07-29 DOI:10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102715

María M. Moreno-Fernández , Fernando Blanco , Helena Matute

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Recent research has identified some psychological barriers that contribute to human inaction on climate change. In the current study, we explore how people perceive the environmental impact of eco-labelled products. We developed a new computerized footprint illusion task based on the trial-by-trial causal learning task. Participants were presented with monthly records of a community household carbon footprint. Thus, this task differs from previous ones in that it allows learning from data. Participants tended to judge the environmental impact of new buildings to be weaker when they were labelled as “green” than when they were no labelled, indicating an effect of eco-labelling. This biased perception occurred even when participants were exposed to information that should assist them in making accurate and unbiased judgments, which indicates that the expectations induced by the labels affected how participants interpreted the data. Implications for the design of strategies aimed at promoting better understanding of the environmental impact of human choices and at minimizing environmental harm are discussed.

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生态友好型标签偏差对环境影响的判断

最近的研究发现了一些心理障碍，导致人类在气候变化问题上无所作为。在当前的研究中，我们探讨了人们如何感知生态标签产品的环境影响。我们在逐次因果学习任务的基础上开发了一种新的计算机化足迹错觉任务。参与者每月都会收到社区家庭碳足迹的记录。因此，这个任务不同于以前的任务，因为它允许从数据中学习。参与者倾向于认为，新建筑被贴上“绿色”标签时对环境的影响要弱于没有贴上标签时的影响，这表明了生态标签的作用。即使当参与者接触到有助于他们做出准确和公正判断的信息时，这种偏见也会发生，这表明由标签引起的期望影响了参与者对数据的解释。讨论了旨在促进更好地了解人类选择对环境的影响和尽量减少对环境的危害的战略的设计所涉问题。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Environmental Psychology Multiple-

CiteScore

10.60

自引率

8.70%

发文量

140

审稿时长

62 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Environmental Psychology is the premier journal in the field, serving individuals in a wide range of disciplines who have an interest in the scientific study of the transactions and interrelationships between people and their surroundings (including built, social, natural and virtual environments, the use and abuse of nature and natural resources, and sustainability-related behavior). The journal publishes internationally contributed empirical studies and reviews of research on these topics that advance new insights. As an important forum for the field, the journal publishes some of the most influential papers in the discipline that reflect the scientific development of environmental psychology. Contributions on theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of all human-environment interactions are welcome, along with innovative or interdisciplinary approaches that have a psychological emphasis. Research areas include: •Psychological and behavioral aspects of people and nature •Cognitive mapping, spatial cognition and wayfinding •Ecological consequences of human actions •Theories of place, place attachment, and place identity •Environmental risks and hazards: perception, behavior, and management •Perception and evaluation of buildings and natural landscapes •Effects of physical and natural settings on human cognition and health •Theories of proenvironmental behavior, norms, attitudes, and personality •Psychology of sustainability and climate change •Psychological aspects of resource management and crises •Social use of space: crowding, privacy, territoriality, personal space •Design of, and experiences related to, the physical aspects of workplaces, schools, residences, public buildings and public space