“Crikey! Let's keep it cozy like a joey in a pouch” can humour or compassion encourage sustainable heater use at hotels?

Abstract

The management of room temperatures plays a crucial role in both environmental impact and energy costs. Small changes, such as reducing heating by 1 °C, can save around 6 % on electricity. In hotels, it is especially challenging to entice people to adjust their heating and cooling behaviours because they are not directly responsible for the incurred costs. Despite the significant impact, there is a notable scarcity of interventions aimed at encouraging sustainable air conditioner use among guests. Most pro-environmental behaviour change interventions in tourism focus on environmental messaging and negative appeals, with mixed effectiveness. Positive emotions like amusement (humour) and self-transcendent emotions (compassion) have been largely overlooked but have shown potential in other research contexts. The current series of studies assesses the comparative effectiveness of messages designed to trigger humour, compassion, and environmental beliefs on sustainable air conditioner use. In Study 1, we develop and evaluate four alternative messages for each theoretical construct. We use the most effective message for each construct (e.g., the most amusing humour message) in Studies 2 and 3. Study 2 serves as a manipulation check to ensure the messages effectively trigger the intended theoretical constructs. It also assesses behavioural intentions and emotional reactions. Study 3 tests the impact of the interventions on behaviour in a quasi-experimental field study. Study 2 shows that each message effectively strengthens its respective theoretical construct (e.g., the environmental message strengthened environmental beliefs). The field study demonstrates that all three messages, along with a basic behaviour instructions message, increase sustainable air conditioner use. The humour message had an advantage over the others, being positively perceived by participants and not causing any negative reactions. Therefore, framing sustainable air conditioner use instructions humorously appears to be a promising strategy in the hotel context. While our humour message is tailored to the Australian winter context, future research should explore the applicability of humour-based interventions in diverse cultural and climate settings to enhance sustainable air conditioner practices globally.