From Temporary Rationality to Sustainable Irrationality: Nudging for Lasting Pro-Environmental Behaviour in Hedonic Settings

Climate action failure has been ranked the most critical threat to the world in the World Economic Forum Global Risk Report (WEF, 2022). Being responsible for the growing 8 per cent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gasemissions (Lenzen et al., 2018), the tourism industry needs to change in order to tackle climate change. Tourism provides an important research subject for pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) as consumers are more open to new information when they are immersed in a new environment - as is the case when people travel to places outside their familiar environment. Researchers can therefore disrupt the cues linked to habitual behaviour, by using behavioural interventions to increase PEB (Verplanken et al., 2008). In addition, tourism can be described as a hedonistic context where people are more likely to focus on their enjoyment rather than thinking about the consequences of their choices, presenting a tendency to act less environmentally friendly (Dolnicar, 2020; Miao & Wei, 2013). Despite the long history of research into sustainable travel behaviour, research on decision-making in hedonic contexts is scarce (Miao & Wei, 2013), and the number of interventions tested in field experiments in tourism accommodations is far from sufficient (Demeter et al., 2023). Moreover, research has focused on a limited range of behaviours in an isolated and cross-sectional manner, not addressing the idiosyncratic complexities of PEB. The proposed PhD project investigates the development and use of nudges to shift consumers' behaviours in an environmentally friendly and, importantly, lasting manner. Drawing on spillover, moral licensing and cleansing theory, I will explain why people's prior moral behaviour sometimes leads them to continue acting the same way (spillover effect) and other times frees them to act contrary to the initial behaviour (licensing and cleansing). Most importantly, it is unclear under which conditions what temporal effect is likely to occur. For instance, if a consumer chooses at the booking stage to offset the carbon footprint of their hotel accommodation, are they sequentially more or less likely to engage in other PEB during their stay? Through this lens, I will examine the temporal and causal effects of decision-making, contributing to understanding the temporality of decision-making in hedonic contexts. The collaboration with the global hotel chain Radisson Hotel Group, enables me to conduct field experiments at different stages of the consumer journey: before the travel, during the stay at the hotel, and after the stay when consumers are back home in their familiar environment. Using this approach I will cover pre-, in-, and post-stay consumer behaviour rather than just focusing on one stage of the travel sequence. This will allow me to examine how the consumers' behaviours are intertwined and how one decision at one stage of the travel sequence can positively or negatively affect behaviour at a later point in time. The proposed doctoral project will provide a novel practical experimental framework for the academic and private sectors, addressing the research gap on how to encourage lasting PEB throughout different phases of the consumer journey. I set out to contribute to existing research with applicable, easily implementable, and generalisable findings, to maximise the impact of the doctoral study. As a consequence, the results of this project will have a positive environmental impact because creating lasting PEB will aid businesses in lowering their greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond this positive impact on the environment, the research will also contribute to academia as it will help better understand the temporality of decision-making in a hedonistic setting.