Social comparison feedback in decision-making context: Environmental externality levels and psychological traits matter

Shutong He*, Julia Blasch, Peter John Robinson, Pieter van Beukering

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Social comparison feedback has been widely applied to encourage energy and water conservation, with the ultimate aim to protect ecosystems and the environment. Yet, the effectiveness of social comparison feedback varies. In this study, with 360 UK participants from Prolific, we conducted an online experiment based on a modified dictator game with multi-round purchasing decisions involving trade-offs between individual monetary payoff and real-world carbon offsets donation. A 2 × 3 between-subjects design was implemented, varying in the externality levels associated with the purchase (high versus low), and the type of feedback (self-feedback, social comparison feedback, and tangible emissions feedback – i.e. social comparison enriched with information relating environmental impacts to daily activity and nature). Furthermore, we measured several psychological traits of participants. Our findings show that social comparison interventions are only effective under certain circumstances. Both interventions with social comparison are more effective in the low-externality context. Furthermore, the effect of tangible emissions feedback is moderated by individuals’ tendency to conform to specific social norms and compete with others. Compared to standard social comparison feedback, social comparison feedback enriched with tangible emissions information is overall more effective. We highlight the importance of tailoring social comparison interventions to local environmental and cultural contexts.

Original languageEnglish
Article number108047
Pages (from-to)1-16
Number of pages16
JournalEcological Economics
Volume216
Early online date15 Nov 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We appreciate comments and suggestions from participants of the CREED (Center for Research in Experimental Economics and political Decision-making) seminar at University of Amsterdam and BENE (Environmental Economics Research of Belgium and the Netherlands) Environmental Economists Research day at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and from our colleagues at the IVM (Institute for Environmental Studies). We sincerely thank Rudi Bergval for his technical support in deploying the experiment. We would like to thank China Scholarship Council and IVM for their financial support.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)

Funding

We appreciate comments and suggestions from participants of the CREED (Center for Research in Experimental Economics and political Decision-making) seminar at University of Amsterdam and BENE (Environmental Economics Research of Belgium and the Netherlands) Environmental Economists Research day at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and from our colleagues at the IVM (Institute for Environmental Studies). We sincerely thank Rudi Bergval for his technical support in deploying the experiment. We would like to thank China Scholarship Council and IVM for their financial support.

Keywords

  • Competitiveness
  • Conformity
  • Context
  • Dictator game
  • Feedback
  • Online experiment
  • Social norms

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Social comparison feedback in decision-making context: Environmental externality levels and psychological traits matter'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this