News

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.70052

Henn, L., Kaiser, F. G., Adler, M., Elf, P. & Gatersleben, B. (2025). Spillover in sustainable consumer behavior: A matter of commitment. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 24(6), 3152-3168. 

Abstract:

Consumers express their commitment to environmental protection by engaging in a variety of environmentally protective behaviors. We thus suggest that strengthening consumers' commitment to environmental protection will cause behavioral spillover, which is the joint change in multiple environmentally protective behaviors. This idea differs from other spillover notions that draw on psychological processes that follow a change in a specific behavior. By reanalyzing data from a pre-post treatment-control quasi-field experiment with customers of a retail company in which one group was exposed to a multiple-component intervention over the course of 8 months, whereas the other was not, we corroborated a significant commitment gain in the experimental group (n = 81) that did not occur in the control group (n = 152). This commitment gain manifested in the expected spillover effect that mirrored the Rasch-model-implied likelihood gains in increasingly favorable behavioral expressions of people's commitment to environmental protection. This research complements existing models of behavioral spillover by providing theoretical and empirical arguments that strengthening consumers' commitment to environmental protection can result in spillover. In practical terms, focusing on people's commitment to environmental protection could thus be a promising avenue for directly promoting sustainable lifestyles.

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102762

Kaiser, F. G. & Brüggemann, M. (2025). Uncovering the relevance of reasons for be­havior: The attitude-behavior gap revisited. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 107, 102762.

Abstract:

To use a particular reason to explain behavior, the reason (e.g., to protect the environment) must be present when people engage in the action (e.g., riding a bike) and absent when people do not (e.g., not riding a bike). This thinking resonates in the statistical benchmark that behavioral scientists typically apply when assessing a reason's behavioral relevance. In contrast to what the notorious attitude-behavior gap insinuates, explaining small amounts of variance in a behavior does not inevitably challenge the behavioral relevance of reasons. The problem arises because different people have different reasons for engaging in a behavior and even for not engaging in it. By reanalyzing two previously collected data sets, we corroborate the environmental-protection reason's sensitivity for actions and specificity for inactions. Additionally, we confirm that both effects become even more convincing when person-specific rather than behavior-specific benchmarks for the presence and absence of a reason are employed.  

Highlights:

• Many reasons can account for any specific decision to act or not to act.
• Alternative reasons usually weaken the behavioral relevance of any specific reason.
• A reason's behavioral relevance is not necessarily shown by its explained variance.
• Action must correspond with the presence of a reason and inaction with its absence.
• Environmental protection is a vital reason for specific action-inaction decisions.

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000558

Kaiser, F. G. & Wilson, M. (2025). Explaining behavior with mental attributes: An exposition with environmental attitude. European Psychologist.

Abstract:

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1471026

Baierl, T.-M., Kaiser, F. G. & Bogner, F. X. (2024). The role of attitude toward nature in learning about environmental issues. Frontiers in Psychology: Environmental Psychology, 15, 1471026

Abstract:

Available free of charge at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102449

Kaiser, F. G. & Urban, J. (2024). Wealth as an obstacle and a support for environmental protection. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 100, 102449.

Abstract:

Highlights:

-Wealth effects are not perplexing when wealth's behavioral relevance is understood.

-When engaging in behavior, individuals typically have to incur costs.

-A population's behavior indicates how supportive the conditions are for action.

-For populations, a surplus in money helps furnish behavior-supportive conditions.

-Wealth helps populations protect the environment, but helps and hinders individuals.