The limited impact of positive cueing on pro-environmental choices

Positive cueing (i.e., when commonly performed environmentally friendly behaviors are cued as being pro-environmental) has been proposed as a social marketing technique to promote sustainable behavior. In three studies (N = 2489), we show that the impact of positive cueing is rather limited. In two specific choice contexts, the results point to a positive spillover effect (i.e., consumers are more likely to make a sustainable choice after positive cueing). However, this effect does not generalize over different product categories and only appears if consumers have used the sustainable alternative before. As such, we question the applicability of this social influence technique to truly stimulate pro-environmental choices in real life.