More green than gray? Toward a sustainable overview of environmental spillover effects: A Bayesian meta-analysis

Geiger, Sandra J.; Brick, Cameron; Nalborczyk, Ladislas; Bosshard, Anna; Jostmann, Nils B.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101694

Cited by 52 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…However, if causal relations between behaviors would be the case this would imply behavioral spillover; that is, the performance of one PEB leading to another (e.g., Thøgersen, 1999 ). The literature on behavioral spillover indeed shows that for some combinations of PEBs (positive) spillover occurs, but in general effects are small and results are mixed (e.g., Maki et al, 2019 ; Geiger et al, 2021 ). However, in previous studies on behavioral spillover personal motivation levels were not included.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of personal motivation on perceived effort and performance of pro-environmental behaviors

2022

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In order to minimize climate change it is important that people take up a sustainable lifestyle. Sustainable lifestyles call for pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in several domains, such as in-home energy use, mobility, and consumption of food and goods. However, studies show that people often do not consistently behave pro-environmentally in all domains. In this study we investigated how a combination of personal motivation, and the difficulty and the perceived effort of a PEB, predicts the performance of PEBs in various domains, using a survey (n = 1,536). By means of Rasch analysis we identified the difficulty of 17 PEBs and estimated respondents’ pro-environmental motivations. In addition, we investigated if performance of certain PEBs increased the probability of performing other PEBs. This way we could identify for each level of motivation which behaviors respondents were (probably) performing and which behaviors they did not yet perform, but would be least effortful new behaviors. Furthermore, using a non-recursive structural equation model we investigated the relations between perceived effort, PEB performance, motivation, underlying traits, and demographics. Results showed a feedback loop between motivation and perceived effort: when respondents were motivated they perceived behaviors as less effortful and also lower perception of effort was related to higher motivation. Our results imply that people mainly perform PEBs that fit their level of pro-environmental motivation and that they are inclined to do the things of which they can justify the effort they need to invest. This amount of effort seems quite similar for people: no one wants to invest too much effort, but people highly differ in how effortful they assess different behaviors. Our study thus indicates that rationalizations play a key role. Encouraging people to embrace more sustainable lifestyles may involve step-by-step increases in PEB performance. We propose that people should be encouraged to perform behaviors that are closest to their current motivation level in order for them to progress from performing easy to more difficult PEBs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of personal motivation on perceived effort and performance of pro-environmental behaviors

2022

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“…Due to the small sample size, we were unable to explore whether there was a rebound or warm glow effect (van Doorn and Kurz 2021) for food waste. We were also unable to answer whether there was a spillover effect (Xu et al 2018, Maki et al 2019, Geiger et al 2021…”

Section: Most Studies Neglect To Examine the Long-term And Collateral...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analytical review of intervention experiments to reduce food waste

Tian

Xia

Xie

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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To reduce food waste, many behavioural intervention experiments have been conducted worldwide, but their effectiveness remains unclear. To assess their impacts, we present a meta-analysis based on 58 studies, selected after screening 1143 papers, which were conducted between 2011 and 2021 covering 26 533 participants. We confirm that behavioural interventions have a moderate effect ( z = 0.22) on food waste reduction, with education programs having the most significant impact and informational feedback having the least. We also show that interventions in elementary and middle school settings marginally improve the overall effect size (P < 0.1), and controlled experiments exhibit a higher effect size compared to pre-post experiments in education interventions (P < 0.05). Finally, we present a roadmap to guide future research in the next decade to further improve our understanding on the effects of behavioural interventions to reduce food waste.

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“…In the literature, spillovers are discussed ambiguously -some studies find positive, others adverse, and even others no such effects at all (Dütschke et al 2021;Geiger et al 2021;Nash et al 2017;Sintov et al 2019;Stikvoort et al 2020;Truelove et al 2014). For instance, Palm et al (2018) failed to demonstrate that prosumers in Sweden changed their energy consumption to a reasonable extent.…”

Section: Ambiguous Empirical Findings On Spillovers and The Attempt T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spillover effects of prosumers are likely to be relatively small (Palm et al 2018), negligible (Geiger et al 2021), or even negative (Dütschke et al 2021).…”

Section: Identifying and Reflecting Prosumer Spilloversmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Prosumers’ Spillovers and the Policy Effect: Comparing Two Alpine Valleys in Styria and South Tyrol

Braito

2022

Alpine Landgesellschaften Zwischen Urbanisierung Und Globalisierung

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The article identifies and compares spillover effects of prosumers (electricity producers and consumers) in different incentive regimes. Prosumers are expected to reduce their energy consumption and increase their environmentally friendly behavior. Such spillover effects are promising for sustainability initiatives – however, researchers have not demonstrated these behavioral effects consistently. I hypothesize that these inconsistent results are related to how households were induced to become prosumers in the first place. To test this hypothesis, prosumers and non-prosumers of different incentive regimes are compared. Statistics show that monetary incentives can lead to adverse spillover effects and that collective prosumers generate the strongest positive spillovers. Results encourage sustainability initiatives to offset financial benefits to promote sustainable lifestyles.

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More green than gray? Toward a sustainable overview of environmental spillover effects: A Bayesian meta-analysis

Cited by 52 publications

References 90 publications

The impact of personal motivation on perceived effort and performance of pro-environmental behaviors

The impact of personal motivation on perceived effort and performance of pro-environmental behaviors

A meta-analytical review of intervention experiments to reduce food waste

Energy Prosumers’ Spillovers and the Policy Effect: Comparing Two Alpine Valleys in Styria and South Tyrol

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