NUDGING TOWARDS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY- An empirical study on the effects of nudging

Abstract

The transition to a Circular Economy serves an important role in reaching sustainable consumption and production patterns to mitigate global warming. In this thesis, we explore how nudging can promote pro-environmental behaviour to enable a circular transition. We ran a survey experiment consisting of six choice scenarios on four different durable goods where half of the respondents were treated with a moral nudge. The moral nudge reminded the responder whether their lifestyle was more, or less, sustainable than the average. The survey aimed to assess the possibility to alter the individual’s choice towards the more sustainable alternative through nudging. We find that if the respondent answered lifestyle questions before the scenario choices it increased the likelihood of choosing the used goods. The results for the moral nudge only showed a significant negative effect on the probability of choosing a sustainable smartphone. As this result is the opposite of what we expected, we suspect a ‘boomerang effect’. Our results indicate that it is possible to influence the decision making to make consumption more sustainable, however, not with a moral nudge.