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Would you rule out going green? The effect of inclusion versus exclusion mindset on pro‐environmental willingness
Author(s) -
McDonald Rachel I.,
Newell Ben R.,
Denson Thomas F.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2040
Subject(s) - mindset , psychology , social psychology , inclusion (mineral) , inclusion–exclusion principle , framing (construction) , political science , epistemology , philosophy , structural engineering , politics , law , engineering
Abstract Two experiments demonstrate that participants' willingness to endorse adopting pro‐environmental behaviors is influenced substantially by a decision‐framing effect: the inclusion–exclusion discrepancy. Participants were presented with a list of 26 pro‐environmental behaviors (e.g., take a shorter shower, buy local produce). In both experiments, participants asked to cross out the behaviors they would not be willing to engage in (exclusion mindset) generated 30% larger consideration sets than those asked to circle behaviors that they would be willing to do (inclusion mindset). Experiment 2 identified qualities of the behaviors that accounted for the differences in the size of consideration sets, namely effort and opportunity. The results suggest the counter‐intuitive notion that encouraging people to think about what they would not do for the environment might lead them to do more. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.