Make It Easier : A psychological perspective on sustainable behavior change

Abstract: Human behavior is the cause of most environmental challenges we face today, and widespread behavioral change is urgently needed across actors and scales. Even though the public perception of the current ecological crisis has changed drastically in recent decades, a corresponding shift in behavior is lacking — unfortunately, mere belief in climate change is a poor predictor of taking action. In light of this knowledge-action gap, this thesis looks at behavior change from a psychological perspective and aims to explore how insights from the behavioral sciences can help understand and promote sustainable behavior change. This thesis mainly focuses on developing and testing interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviors. It studies the effectiveness of information-based nudges, manipulation of the physical environment, and the interaction between internal motivation to act and the immediate decision context. The thesis also explores the automatic and habitual aspects of behavior change. To this end, five studies were conducted. Four empirical studies in which interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviors were designed and implemented in different natural contexts. All interventions were evaluated using observed behavior and a mix of experimental designs, from lab experiments to natural field experiments. A fifth argument-driven conceptual paper was also written. Overall, the result from the studies highlights the potential (and complexity) of applying behavioral insights in intervention design: they indicate that the effect can be long-lasting and that relatively small changes in spatial layouts can produce significant behavior change. The results especially showcase the importance of the immediate decision context, and that if conditions are right, manipulating the physical environment can be a powerful, and potentially underutilized, tool to steer behavior. Notably, findings from a lab experiment showed that even when there are strong self-reported intentions to act, convenience to act sustainably might not be enough to spark change, as long as the alternative routine choice was equally convenient. Not until the more sustainable option was made to be the easier choice did significant change occur. The results also showcase the important role habit plays in our day-to-day actions and decisions, how habits can act as strong barriers to change, and that they link behavior to the physical environment. These insights complement the currently dominant narrative focused on intrinsic and rational motivation for acting sustainably and paves the way for a research agenda focused on exploring the manipulation of the physical environment and “habit architecture” as a way to spark sustainable behavior change.