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Why Going Green Feels Good Venhoeven, Leonie A.; Bolderdijk, Jan Willem; Steg, Linda

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Why Going Green Feels Good Venhoeven, Leonie A.; Bolderdijk, Jan Willem; Steg, Linda University of Groningen Why going green feels good Venhoeven, Leonie A.; Bolderdijk, Jan Willem; Steg, Linda Published in: Journal of Environmental Psychology DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101492 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2020 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Venhoeven, L. A., Bolderdijk, J. W., & Steg, L. (2020). Why going green feels good. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 71, [101492]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101492 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 30-09-2021 Journal of Environmental Psychology 71 (2020) 101492 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep Why going green feels good Leonie A. Venhoeven a,c, Jan Willem Bolderdijk b,*, Linda Steg c a Dijksterhuis & Van Baaren, St. Anthoniusplaats 9, 6511, TR Nijmegen, Groningen, the Netherlands b Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Groningen, Nettelbosje 4, 9747AE, Groningen, the Netherlands c Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS, Groningen, the Netherlands ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Handling Editor: Sander van der Linden Recent research found that when asked explicitly, people associate (future) sustainable actions with positive instead of negative emotions. This empirical finding implies that policy makers could harness people’s intrinsic Keywords: motivation to promote sustainable actions. It is however not clear where this association between sustainable Meaning actions and positive emotions stems from. Why would people report that going green feels good, given that such Sustainable behavior actions often require more effort or inconvenience? We argue and show that the previously found relationship Positive emotions between sustainable actions and anticipated positive emotions is not merely a matter of social desirability, but rather a matter of meaning: acting sustainably is often perceived as a moral choice and thus as a meaningful course of action, which can elicit positive emotions. Specifically, we found that participants also associate sus­ tainable actions with positive instead of negative emotions when using an implicit association measure – one that reduces the likelihood of socially desirable responses (Study 1). Moreover, participants anticipated more intense emotions when those actions were meaningful to them: they felt more positive about sustainable actions, and more negative about unsustainable actions, when they chose to engage in those actions and when those actions are considered personally relevant to the individual (Study 2). Together, these studies explain why acting green feels good, and support the notion that sustainable actions are indeed expected (not merely reported) to be intrinsically motivating. 1. Why going green feels good communication. However, it is currently not completely clear where the association Environmentally-sustainable actions oftentimes involve a certain between sustainable actions and positive emotions stems from. Why degree of discomfort or inconvenience. Taking the bike instead of the car would people report that sustainable actions (e.g. recycling) would to work, for instance, saves emissions, but requires physical effort, and make them feel good, given that those actions often require some level of longer travelling time. Washing clothing at lower temperatures saves sacrifice or effort? energy, but may leave stains intact. Recycling requires more effort than One more cynical explanation is that people do not actually have a putting all garbage into the same bin. Nevertheless, people anticipate positive association with sustainable actions, but simply report that sustainable actions will elicit positive emotions and a ‘warm glow’: they sustainable actions would make them feel good when explicitly asked report that sustainable actions will make them feel good about them­ about it. There are several reasons why explicit measures (i.e. self- selves, suggesting that they find it intrinsically rewarding to act sus­ reports) could allow for such response bias (Thomas & Walker, 2015). tainably (Pfister& Bohm,¨ 2008; Smith, Haugvedt & Petty, 1994; Taufik, First, people may consider it socially desirable to self-report that sus­ Bolderdijk, & Steg, 2016; Van der Linden, 2018). Given anticipated tainable actions would make them feel good: people may want to appear emotions often guide our decisions (Loewenstein & Lerner, 2003; Mel­ to themselves (i.e. self-deception) and to others (i.e. impression man­ lers & McGraw, 2001; Pfister & Bohm,¨ 2008; Schwarz, 2000; Taufik agement) as being concerned about the environment (Ewert & et al., 2016; Zeelenberg, Nelissen, Breugelmans, & Pieters, 2008), this Galloway, 2009). So, when explicitly asked to report their feelings to­ association between sustainable actions and positive emotions offers a wards sustainable actions, people may present themselves as being more hopeful message to policy makers: they could harness consumers’ intrinsically motivated than they really are. Second, explicit measures intrinsic motivation to act sustainably in their messages and could act as ‘prompts’ (Hafner, Walker & Verplanken, 2017). By asking * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.W. Bolderdijk). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101492 Received 30 January 2020; Received in revised form 10 August 2020; Accepted 17 August 2020 Available online 22 August 2020 0272-4944/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). L.A. Venhoeven et al. Journal of Environmental Psychology 71 (2020) 101492 participants to explicitly report whether sustainable actions would make IAT measures people’s automatic emotional association with a concept them feel good, self-reports make the possibility of positive feelings via response times. If people also implicitly associate sustainable salient in participants, making them report more positive feelings than behavior with positive instead of negative emotions, it would be they would experience spontaneously. Thus, it is conceivable that peo- cognitively easier for participants to pair sustainable actions with pos- ple (unintentionally) inflate the claim that they would feel good about itive instead of with negative emotions. Thus, they would respond sustainable actions in self-reports – the method used in prior empirical quicker when sustainable actions (e.g. ‘energy saving’) are presented in work to examine people’s emotional association with sustainable ac- conjunction with the word ‘positive’ instead of with the word ‘negative’. tions (Taufik et al., 2016; Van der Linden, 2018). In other words, the IAT assumes participants respond quicker when We however argue that the previously found association between the pairing task is set up to be consistent with their pre-existing, auto- sustainable actions and positive emotions is unlikely just the result of matic associations. On the other hand, participants would respond response bias. We tested this empirically in Study 1, using a method that slower when the pairing task requires them to override any pre-existing minimizes the influenceof response bias. Instead, we argue people may associations. By using response times to detect the valence of people’s actually anticipate positive emotions, as sustainable actions can elicit automatic associations, the IAT makes it difficult for participants to tell meaning: acting sustainably is often perceived as a morally-good choice what researchers are actually interested in, or to exert control over their and thus as a meaningful course of action, which can elicit positive responses, thus reducing the influenceof socially desirable response bias emotions. Due to meaning, people may associate sustainable behaviors - (De Houwer, 2006). In environmental psychology, the IAT has been used even those that involve a certain degree of effort or sacrifice - with to test people’s implicit attitude towards nuclear energy (Siegrist, Keller, positive instead of merely negative emotions. We tested the underlying & Cousin, 2006), their connection with natural versus built environ- role of meaning in shaping positive emotional associations in Study 2. ments (e.g. Bruni & Schultz,
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