Research Projects

Most consumers want to be sustainable, but have a hard time taking the necessary actions. Following a review of the literature, we created a framework to SHIFT consumers towards sustainable choices using Social influence, Habits, Individual self, Feelings and cognitions, and Tangibility. 

• Read about SHIFT in Harvard Business Review and in The Conversation
• Read about a pilot program training circular innovators to SHIFT consumer behaviour.

Project by: Katherine White, Rishad Habib, & David Hardisty

Air travel is a major source of carbon emissions. How can we encourage consumers to offset the emissions of their flights? Together with partner the Environmental Defense Fund, we found that consumers support carbon pricing more when it is described as a carbon offset for aviation fuel production and import. 

Project by: David Hardisty, Alec Beall, Ruben Lubowski, Annie Petsonk, & Rainer Romero-Canyas

Energy efficient products are more eco-friendly and reduce costs in the long run, but they are often more expensive at the cash register. How can we encourage consumers to go green? In a field study with partner London Drugs, we quadrupled the percent of energy efficient lightbulb purchases by using labels that emphasized energy cost savings over 10 years.

Project by: David Hardisty, Yoonji Shim, Daniel Sun, & Dale Griffin

Environmental sustainability issues tend to feel psychologically distant to people. When this is true, describing sustainability information in abstract (vs. concrete) terms leads to more positive reactions to eco-friendly products.

Project by: Rebecca Walker-Reczek, Remi Trudel, & Katherine White

The vast majority of plastic ends up in landfills or the ocean, with devastating effects on marine life. In partnership with Ocean Wise, we tested different signage to see which would reduce plastic waste the most. We found that signs with images of marine animals trapped in plastic debris led to the largest decrease in plastic waste, compared to signing a public #BePlasticWise pledge or merely simplifying signage.

Project by: Jeremy Douglas, Yu Luo, & Jiaying Zhao

Although it may seem unsightly, grasscycling (leaving grass clippings on the lawn rather than bagging them as garbage) reduces waste and fertilizes our lawns. In partnership with the City of Calgary, we found that certain message combinations are more effective at encouraging grasscycling: (1) collective appeals that highlight what others think you should do, (2) collective appeals that highlight what others are doing, (3) individual appeals that highlight what others are doing, and (4) individual appeals that highlight the benefits of the behaviour itself.

Project by: Katherine White & Bonnie Simpson

Signs above waste bins are often confusing to read. How can we make them easier to follow? We tested different signage to understand what type of information to include and how to present it. Signs showing only permitted items helped people sort their waste more accurately than signs showing both permitted and prohibited items. Further, signs with pictures or icons of items worked better than signs with words. Lastly, consistent sign positioning worked better than random positions.

Project by: David Wu, Peter Lenkic, Alessandra DiGiacomo, Peter Cech, Jiaying Zhao, & Alan Kingstone

When people dispose waste in recycling or composting bins, they rarely receive feedback about what they did right or wrong. We designed an online 2-minute sorting game where people practice sorting waste and receive immediate feedback on their performance. Immediate feedback improved sorting accuracy over the short term and the long term. In a field experiment, compost rates increased while contamination rates decreased after residents in a high-rise building played the sorting game with feedback.

Project by: Yu Luo, Ivana Zelenika, & Jiaying Zhao

The majority of people do not save enough for retirement; at the same time, they begin collecting retirement benefits too soon, which reduces the size of their monthly benefit check. Asking people to think first about reasons to delay collecting benefits and think second about reasons to collect benefits sooner leads seniors to delay collecting benefits.

Project by: Melissa Knoll, Kirstin Appelt, Eric Johnson, & Jon Westfall

Inexperienced investors often pick stocks that are positively correlated. Because these stocks move up and down together, they feel like easy, safe investments, when in fact they are actually riskier. Our research shows that presenting aggregate portfolio returns helps these investors choose safer, more diverse portfolios.

Project by: Yann Cornil, David Hardisty, & Yakov Bart

People often under-predict their future expenses because they forget that, each week, unusual expenses pop up, whether car repairs, a friend’s birthday, annual insurance premiums, or something else. In partnership with Vancity, we find that asking people a simple question, “What are three reasons why your expenses next week might be different from a typical week?”, corrects their predictions about their future expenses.

Project by: Chuck Howard, David Hardisty, & Abigail Sussman

Prosocial behaviours involve a cost to the actor in order to benefit others or society more generally. We use the SHIFT framework (Social influence, Habits, Individual self, Feelings and cognitions, and Tangibility) to review the drivers of prosocial behaviors, such as donation, volunteering, and ethical consumption, and introduce a special issue in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Project by: Katherine White, Rishad Habib, & Darren Dahl

Charities often publicly recognize donors. Our research confirms that this is effective for people who see themselves as interdependent and who are influenced by others’ opinions and expectations. In contrast, people who see themselves as independent and who are more guided by their own goals and self-interests give more when the donation will remain private.

Project by: Bonnie Simpson, Katherine White, & Juliano Laran