Combatting climate change through message framing? : a real behavior experiment on voluntary carbon offsetting

Ropret Homar, Aja (author), Knežević Cvelbar, Ljubica (author)

Findings from behavioral economics suggest the currently low take-up of voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) could be increased by changing the way choices are presented. In this article, we lean on prospect theory to test the effect of loss framing on air traveler's VCO behavior and whether this contrasts with attitudes and behavioral intentions. Borrowing from experimental economics, we conduct an incentive-compatible online experiment with a real-effort task. We find that under certain conditions a loss-framed VCO message leads to higher likelihood of offsetting, indicating some presence of loss aversion. The results also reveal a substantial attitude-behavior gap and intention-behavior gap, previously postulated to be particularly strong in the tourism setting but not yet quantified. Importantly, 28% of participants with a negative attitude toward VCOs chose to offset nonetheless, indicating positive attitudes are not a pre-requisite for behavior, as hitherto stipulated. Practical, theoretical, and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.

• Language: English
• Keywords: tourism, environment, consumer behaviour, sustainable development, loss framing, voluntary carbon offsets, pro-environmental behavior, attitude-behavior gap, online experiment
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 883–903
• Numbering: Vol. 63, iss. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-149240
• UDC: 338.48
• ISSN on article: 0047-2875
• DOI: 10.1177/00472875231179400
• COBISS.SI-ID: 155243267
• Publication date in RUL: 05.09.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of travel research
• Shortened title: J. travel res.
• Publisher: SAGE, Travel and Tourism Research Association
• ISSN: 0047-2875
• COBISS.SI-ID: 31206

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: turizem, okolje, vedenje potrošnikov, trajnostni razvoj