Arbeitspapier

Moral licensing and rebound effects in the residential lighting area: An experimental study

Rebound effects reduce the energy demand reduction from energy efficiency in-creases. Understanding the underlying mechanisms is therefore crucial. A poten-tial driver is moral licensing, a cognitive process by which individuals justify im-moral behaviour (e.g., using more and brighter lights) by having previously en-gaged in moral behaviour (e.g., switching to a more efficient lighting). Since em-pirical research on this topic is rare, we conducted an experimental study: Partic-ipants (n=491) chose between three LEDs, which were all more energy-efficient than their current one. For investigating moral licensing, the perceived environ-mental behaviour of the participants was manipulated by a previous assessment of their own past environmental behaviour: Treatment easy (1) provided the im-pression of highly environmental behaviours, treatment difficult (2) the impression of a less environmentally friendly behaviour. A control group (3) focused on lei-sure time behaviours. Overall, we are able to demonstrate rebound effects in LED choice and find effects of the manipulation on the moral self-perception. However, we do not find significant patterns regarding treatment condition and LED choice. On the contrary, in both treatments, easy (1) and difficult (2), individuals tended to show more environmental friendly choices. These results suggest that bringing environmental behaviours to people's mind could contribute to weakening re-bound effects in general.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Working Paper Sustainability and Innovation ; No. S09/2019

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Eberling, Elisabeth
Dütschke, Elisabeth
Eckartz, Katharina Marie
Schuler, Johannes
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI
(wo)
Karlsruhe
(wann)
2019

Handle
URN
urn:nbn:de:0011-n-5618467
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Eberling, Elisabeth
  • Dütschke, Elisabeth
  • Eckartz, Katharina Marie
  • Schuler, Johannes
  • Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI

Entstanden

  • 2019

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