Carbon innumeracy

Amir Grinstein*, Evan Kodra, Stone Chen, Seth Sheldon, Ory Zik

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Individuals must have a quantitative understanding of the carbon footprint tied to their everyday decisions to make efficient sustainable decisions. We report research of the innumeracy of individuals as it relates to their carbon footprint. In three studies that varied in terms of scale and sample, respondents estimate the quantity of CO2 released when combusting a gallon of gasoline in comparison to several well-known metrics including food calories and travel distance. Consistently, respondents estimated the quantity of CO2 from gasoline compared to other metrics with significantly less accuracy while exhibiting a tendency to underestimate CO2. Such relative absence of carbon numeracy of even a basic consumption habit may limit the effectiveness of environmental policies and campaigns aimed at changing individual behavior. We discuss several caveats as well as opportunities for policy design that could aid the improvement of people’s quantitative understanding of their carbon footprint.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0196282
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume13
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 May 2018

Funding

This study was supported in part by a research budget provided by Northeastern University to AG. Additionally, risQ Inc. and Sheldon Data provided support in the form of salaries for authors EK, SC, and SS but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. The authors are grateful for the research assistance of Shruti Naseri and for helpful suggestions from Dan Ariely, Michael Toffel, Ron Milo, Ann Kronrod, Auroop Ganguly, Matt Eckelman, and Steven Scyphers. This study was supported in part by a research budget provided by Northeastern University to AG. Additionally, risQ Inc. and Sheldon Data provided support in the form of salaries for authors EK, SC, and SS but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ?author contributions? section. The authors are grateful for the research assistance of Shruti Naseri and for helpful suggestions from Dan Ariely, Michael Toffel, Ron Milo, Ann Kronrod, Auroop Ganguly, Matt Eckelman, and Steven Scyphers.

FundersFunder number
Northeastern University
Northeastern University
risQ Inc.

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