Promoting pro-environmental behaviours through induced hypocrisy

Odou, Philippe; Darke, Peter R.; Voisin, Dimitri

doi:10.1177/2051570718813848

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…This friction creates conflict or incongruence between an individual's cognitions, beliefs, or values and their actual behaviour or choices regarding sustainability. This phenomenon is known as cognitive dissonance [192,197,198] and is the subject of research in the field of Design for Sustainable Behavior, which seeks to address it via solutions such as nudges, public commitment [199], induced hypocrisy [200], or the development of a sustainable consumption pattern [201]. Weder et al [192] offered interesting findings, which proposed a new version of narrative inquiry to explain sustainability-related cognitive dissonance.…”

Section: Bottlenecks For Citizens' Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Could People and Communities Contribute to the Energy Transition? Conceptual Maps to Inform, Orient, and Inspire Design Actions and Education

Pillan,

Costa,

Caiola

2023

Sustainability

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Energy Transition (ET) is crucial for sustainable development, impacting inclusive prosperity and social justice. Knowledge development, innovative solutions, and awareness actions become crucial as energy systems transform. ET necessitates behavioural and cultural changes involving individuals in responsible decision making. The active engagement of all societal actors, including people and communities is essential. The article is authored by a university research team specializing in Design for Sustainability, Service Design, and Design for Experience, and it addresses two central research questions: (i) how can individuals and communities contribute to ET? and (ii) how can design theories, methods, and expertise contribute to generating knowledge and solutions for ET? The research employs a multidisciplinary literature review and case study analysis. It is structured into two main sections. The first section examines ET, drawing upon European Union (EU) official documents and academic literature to outline its values, objectives, actors, initiatives, and challenges, focusing on the role of citizens and communities. The second section explores the design’s contributions, summarizing relevant philosophies and solutions aligned with ET goals, challenges, and bottlenecks. Conceptual maps were created to address the knowledge gap on ET objectives and guidelines, providing design-oriented reference knowledge and principles. The purpose of the research is to define a conceptual framework made up of maps to guide researchers, designers, and design educators in understanding the complexity of ET and to inspire their intervention proposals.

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Section: Bottlenecks For Citizens' Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Could People and Communities Contribute to the Energy Transition? Conceptual Maps to Inform, Orient, and Inspire Design Actions and Education

Pillan,

Costa,

Caiola

2023

Sustainability

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“…Self-persuasion techniques are indirect, stronger, deeper, and longer lasting because they convince people that they are internally motivated to change their attitudes or behaviors (Aronson, 1999 ). Effects of self-persuasion have been documented in marketing (Bernritter et al, 2017 ), education (Canning & Harackiewicz, 2015 ), health communication (Baldwin et al, 2021 ; Loman et al, 2018 ), green behavior (Odou et al, 2019 ), interpersonal relationships (Wong et al, 2022 ), and computer science domains (Krsek et al, 2022 ). As a type of self-persuasion, we suggest that hypocrisy induction evokes internal motivations to change behavior specifically in anti-cyberbullying CSR campaigns.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approach versus Avoidance: A Self-Regulatory Perspective on Hypocrisy Induction in Anti-Cyberbullying CSR Campaigns

Ryoo

Kim

2023

J Bus Ethics

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Governments, institutions, and brands try various intervention strategies for countering growing cyberbullying, but with questionable effectiveness. The authors use hypocrisy induction, a technique for subtly reminding consumers that they have acted contrary to their moral values, to see whether it makes consumers more willing to support brand-sponsored anti-cyberbullying CSR campaigns. Findings demonstrate that hypocrisy induction evokes varying reactions depending on regulatory focus, mediated by guilt and shame. Specifically, consumers who have a dominant promotion (prevention) focus feel guilt (shame), which motivates them to overcome their discomfort by supporting (avoiding) an anti-cyberbullying campaign. Moral regulation is drawn as a theoretical underpinning to explain various consumer reactions to hypocrisy induction, the moderating role of regulatory focus, and mediating role of guilt and shame. The research contributes to the literature and provides practical implications by explaining when and why brands can use hypocrisy induction to persuade consumers to support social causes through the lens of moral regulation theory.

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“…For example, individuals with Mexican higher education students biospheric and altruistic values have been shown to engage in more climate change mitigation actions than individuals with selfish values (Howell and Allen, 2017;Whitley et al, 2018). For these reasons, several campaigns for promoting pro-environmental behaviors in individuals have focused on altruistic or biospheric values (Evans et al, 2013;Gifford and Comeau, 2011;Odou et al, 2019;van Prooijen and Sparks, 2014). Large-scale national studies have also captured distinct values or "worldviews" within populaces regarding engagement with the issue of climate change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global warming in the minds of Mexican higher education students: an exploratory study

Munguía

Romero

Anaya-Eredias

et al. 2022

IJSHE

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Purpose The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 is at the core of many sustainability initiatives on Mexican higher education institutions (HEIs). Yet, progress to SDG 13 and the entire 2030 Agenda might today appear unlikely to meet. To change this situation, it is necessary to form professionals aware of the impacts of climate change and competent to respond efficiently to its adaptation and mitigation. In this context, the purpose of this study is to reveal the beliefs and concerns about global warming of Mexican students enrolled in engineering bachelor's degrees at higher education institutes that promote sustainability. Design/methodology/approach In an exploratory study, engineering university students at six large public universities in Mexico answered questions regarding their beliefs and concerns regarding climate change. The study was carried out by using the Global Warming's Six Americas survey questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed by a research team from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication at Yale University to identify different audiences within the American public regarding climate change. Participants were recruited via convenience/snowball techniques which provided access to a diverse sample. Those who agreed to partake in the study were directed to an online platform via Google forms. Data were collected from January to April 2021. Coding and data treatment was conducted according to the developers' codebook and SPSS scripts. After running the statistical program scripts to determine the respondents' segment, a univariate descriptive analysis was performed for each item in the questionnaire to describe general properties in each variable. Subsequently, a series of correspondence analyses was conducted to examine the existence of clusters or patterns that could indicate relationships among selected questions. Findings The findings of this study revealed that the majority of the Mexican engineering higher education students participating in the survey fell in the segment of alarmed, 47.3%, or the segment of concerned, 46.%. Furthermore, 78.6% of higher education students in the alarmed segment were extremely sure that global warming is happening. In addition, 98% believed that it is caused mostly by human activities. Furthermore, 89% stated that global warming would harm them personally significantly and 96% thought that future generations would be harmed considerably. About 78% believed that people in Mexico and the USA are currently being harmed by global warming. On the other hand, about 45% of students in the concerned group noted they were extremely sure. In addition, 96% of them thought that global warming is being produced mostly by anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, 39% said global warming will harm them personally to a great deal. However, nearly 80% noted that global warming would also hurt future generations. Although those students in the alarmed and concerned group show similar beliefs and concerns about global warming, the magnitude of concern was more significant for those in the alarmed segment. Research limitations/implications There are several limitations to the study. First, the online questionnaire did not allow for clarification or follow-up on behalf of the respondents. Therefore, it could be possible that respondents misunderstood some items. However, the research team took the following measures to limit confusion: (1) The questionnaire had been previously used in several studies. None of these studies reported problems related to confusion, so the research team took this fact as evidence of the acceptable reliability of the questionnaire. (2) A face-to-face pilot test was carried out with 30 university students where no problems of comprehension were reported. (3) The target population had adequate prior knowledge of climate change, so the possibility of misunderstandings was likely low. A second limitation relates to the nature of the study. Fighting to mitigate the global climate crisis is a positive social norm. Respondents may have provided answers in line with this social norm and presented themselves as more pro-environmental than they actually are. Second, because of our selection criteria, our data may overestimate the general public's “worldviews” on climate change. Finally, this study was carried on during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have impacted items' responses. These limitations constitute future opportunities for future research. Specifically, future research might ideally use a large-scale comprehensive study evaluating the broader Mexican public's beliefs and views about climate change. Furthermore, because our data showed that our respondents were very concerned about climate change, but did little in terms of behavioral mitigation, future research should continue to examine and explore differences in various measures of climate friendly behaviors among different segments of the population. Practical implications This study's findings have at least twofold implications for university authorities and sustainability practitioners in their pursuit of meeting SDG 13. The first implication is related to academic life. Undoubtedly, having a high percentage of students believing in global warming and mainly that this phenomenon is by anthropogenic activities is a strong indication of their knowledge. But, indirectly, these results validate the sustainability teaching and research efforts in their HEIs, implying the commitment to sustaining and improving the quality of their sustainability-educational initiatives in all institutional areas. The second implication of our findings is related to HEIs' future commitments to address the target of SDG 13 during the present Decade of Actions. Results also lead us to reflect on the role of Mexican HEIs as agents of change, beyond offering good instruction on climate science as an agent of socialization to encourage positive mitigation and adaptation behaviors among the general population. Social implications The social implication behind the environmental values of younger people found in this study is that a deeper understanding of these millennials' beliefs and concerns toward global warming will help Mexican policymakers implement policies in this regard and hopefully will be endorsed by a significant proportion of the Mexican population. Originality/value The originality of this study is the application of the Global Warming's Six Americas survey questionnaire in higher education settings. Therefore, the knowledge generated determines the quality of the article. As findings in this study revealed, there is apparently little disagreement among the Mexican engineering higher education students about the belief of the existence of global warming and this phenomenon is being caused mainly by human-related activities. Nevertheless, a minority of students still believe that global warming is caused naturally or not occurring. However, it is not possible to claim victory, as these achievements should not be considered, in any way, a guarantee that students will carry out behaviors in their daily lives that impact a reduction in global warming. Nevertheless, the study provides insights to allow university authorities to ensure that the current beliefs and concerns will not fade in the post-pandemic times. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic should be taken a pivotal era toward the goal of increasing the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

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Promoting pro-environmental behaviours through induced hypocrisy

Cited by 10 publications

References 61 publications

How Could People and Communities Contribute to the Energy Transition? Conceptual Maps to Inform, Orient, and Inspire Design Actions and Education

How Could People and Communities Contribute to the Energy Transition? Conceptual Maps to Inform, Orient, and Inspire Design Actions and Education

Approach versus Avoidance: A Self-Regulatory Perspective on Hypocrisy Induction in Anti-Cyberbullying CSR Campaigns

Global warming in the minds of Mexican higher education students: an exploratory study

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