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Making Cool Choices for sustainability: Testing the effectiveness of a game-based approach to promoting pro-environmental behaviors
... The use of GeoBIM models can help to make more informed decisions by making use of several key indicators that can lead to better and more reliable results through a multi-criteria approach [57,58]. BIM makes it possible to quickly extract data and information from the components of a project and aid in the evaluation [58], mainly due to the potential offered by the IFC file format, while GIS integrates such assessments into the broader urban decision-making by incorporating multiple location and environmental information and criteria -as social, environmental and economic indicators -thus bringing GeoBIM technology to potentially more effective use in multi-criteria decision-making [59,60]. ...
... These two concepts refer to the inclusion of game design elements in real-world contexts, to combine entertainment purposes, with other motivations such as learning ones [57][58][59]. These elements take the form of points, levels, badges to name few, and absorb the player in non-game activities, motivating her to engage in the activity for which the gamified environment has been designed [60]. In this sense then, gamification has been recognized as promising in promoting a shift toward more sustainable behavioral pattern in users and, in general, among members of society [46,60]. ...
... These elements take the form of points, levels, badges to name few, and absorb the player in non-game activities, motivating her to engage in the activity for which the gamified environment has been designed [60]. In this sense then, gamification has been recognized as promising in promoting a shift toward more sustainable behavioral pattern in users and, in general, among members of society [46,60]. ...
This work presents a new method, called Controlled Filter with Active Perception (CFAP), to approach the problem of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). SLAM aims to map an unknown environment while estimating the trajectory of a mobile agent moving within that environment. CFAP combines the two fundamental pillars of SLAM, which are scan alignment and loop closure, into a single process. The method is inspired by human perception of locating oneself and for this, it uses a mental map to guide itself. CFAP uses a Gaussian distribution to estimate possible poses and performs the alignment process in cycles, where each cycle is influenced by the results of the previous one. The Active Perception mechanism is used in each cycle to determine the quality of each of the possible poses, allowing for more accurate simultaneous localization and mapping. Benchmarking tests were performed on 5 public datasets that demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.KeywordsActive perceptionSimultaneous localization and mappingOptimized search
... Such gamified IS combine instructional elements with motivational elements borrowed from games. For instance, to increase relevance through social interaction, gamification elements can include competitions between employees or teams of employees (Corbett, 2013;Hillebrand and Johannsen, 2021;Iria et al., 2020;Ro et al., 2017), often in combination with incentives. As another example, playful narratives (Oppong-Tawiah et al., 2020;Seidler et al., 2020) can illustrate the impact and pertinence of individual behavior. ...
... However, when it comes to evaluating the impact of green IS, studies fall short in considering the influence of the different elements used. Green IS that include both types of elements are evaluated as a whole, disregarding specific motivational or instructional elements and their relative impact on measured outcomes (Iria et al., 2020;Kaselofsky et al., 2020;Oppong-Tawiah et al., 2020;Ro et al., 2017). Looking at the use and relative influence of instructional and motivational elements in green IS on sustainable employee behavior, though, yields valuable insights into how such systems can best be designed to help employees engage in sustainable behavior. ...
... However, there is still a lack of understanding of the individual role of instructional and motivational elements in eliciting such behaviors. Green IS have primarily been evaluated as a whole, neglecting specific motivational or instructional elements and their relative influence on measured outcomes (Iria et al., 2020;Kaselofsky et al., 2020;Oppong-Tawiah et al., 2020;Ro et al., 2017). However, examining the relative influence of instructional Thirty-first European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2023), Kristiansand, Norway and motivational elements in green IS on sustainable employee behavior can provide valuable insights into how such systems can best be designed to help employees engage in sustainable behavior. ...
Research on green IS has emphasized the value of both instructional and motivational elements in supporting sustainable behavior at work. However, there is still a lack of understanding of these different feature types' individual roles and relevance in inducing sustainable employee behavior. Our study addresses this gap and investigates the use and effects of different instructional and motivational elements in a green IS through a field study with 92 employees in five companies. Our findings based on the analysis of behavioral data show that instructional elements are more relevant in invoking sustainable behavior, but motivational elements can amplify the positive influence of instructional elements, in particular for long-term user engagement. We contribute to theory and practice by revealing the role of instructional and motivational elements in the successful design of green IS for sustainable employee behavior.
... Gamification provides a new direction for enhancing and promoting users to participate in desired behavior, and the potential thereof has been extended to environment protection (Simões et al., 2013). Such gamification concept was applied by Ro et al. (2017) in environmental psychology research on promoting pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). ...
... People look for suitable challenges in said environments to enter a state of flow (Huber & Hilty, 2015). Hence, gamification can make users focus on "non-game activities" (Ro et al., 2017). Additionally, gamification reduces psychological distance through the instant feedback system, which allows users to clearly recognize the role of their own behaviors (Wolf, 2020). ...
... Additionally, gamification reduces psychological distance through the instant feedback system, which allows users to clearly recognize the role of their own behaviors (Wolf, 2020). The information presentation effectuated by gamification can enhance PEB when the psychological distance is reduced (Wolf, 2020), and users will even change their behavior for rewards (Ro et al., 2017). In parallel, users will voluntarily exhibit PEBs when there is no influence in terms of attitude or conscious (Ro et al., 2017). ...
Although games provide a certain degree of entertainment, gamification is subtly affecting the behavior of users. Teaching the public to practice pro-environmental behavior (PEB) through gamification has gained an increasing amount of attention and concern in academic circles. As a relatively new research field, a systematic literature review (SLR) on gamification as a learning tool for PEB was conducted using articles with the publication date of 2007 to the present. By reviewing 56 articles from the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, the following findings were made: (1) gamification elements mainly represented by reward, feedback, competition, points, goal, leaderboards, challenge, meaning are the PEB learning tools that authors displayed most concern with; (2) improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emission were the most commonly learned PEBs via gamification; and (3) the self-determination theory, the goal framing theory, the theory of planned behavior and the Octalysis framework were the most commonly applied theories in the research field of gamification and PEB.
... In the context of climate-relevant behaviors, variable schedules of reinforcement have been associated with long-term improvement following sustainability interventions [47]. For example, Ro et al. (2017) [48] observed a significant decrease in household electricity consumption following an intervention that included cash prizes being awarded randomly each week to participants who reported engaging in at least one eco-friendly behavior. This effect was maintained 6-months after the game had ended [48], highlighting the behavior change power of a variable schedule. ...
... In the context of climate-relevant behaviors, variable schedules of reinforcement have been associated with long-term improvement following sustainability interventions [47]. For example, Ro et al. (2017) [48] observed a significant decrease in household electricity consumption following an intervention that included cash prizes being awarded randomly each week to participants who reported engaging in at least one eco-friendly behavior. This effect was maintained 6-months after the game had ended [48], highlighting the behavior change power of a variable schedule. ...
... For example, Ro et al. (2017) [48] observed a significant decrease in household electricity consumption following an intervention that included cash prizes being awarded randomly each week to participants who reported engaging in at least one eco-friendly behavior. This effect was maintained 6-months after the game had ended [48], highlighting the behavior change power of a variable schedule. Schedules of reinforcement may be thinned once the target behavior has become habitual, with extrinsic rewards completely phased out over time in some cases [47]. ...
The rapidly increasing rate of climate change is a major threat of our time. Human behaviors contribute to climate change. These behaviors are malleable. To change human behavior in significant and sustainable ways, we need a scientific understanding of motivation and behavior change. One area in psychological science that provides precision, scope, and depth to our understanding of human behavior and motivation is contextual behavioral science (CBS). The current article provides an account of how CBS can provide real-world solutions to promoting positive behavior change to reduce human-induced climate issues. Specifically, we will outline six evidence-based considerations for organizations aiming to promote pro-environmental behaviors through messaging, advertising, and social marketing. Practical examples are provided across all six considerations to promote behavior change to reduce the rapidly increasing rate of climate change.
... Researchers have studied a number of such interventions in the past (e.g., default settings, information about others' people behavior), and their effects on behavior change have been meta-analytically supported (e.g., Mertens et al., 2022). In the following, we propose three behavioral interventions that have proven to be effective for strenuous pro-environmental behavior (Avineri & Waygood, 2013;Dogan et al., 2014;Kacperski & Kutzner, 2020;Ro et al., 2017;Steinhorst & Klöckner, 2018). ...
... Because people like to play and compare (Hsu & Lu, 2004), numerous studies used the concept of gamification in various behavioral fields such as education (Christy & Fox, 2014;Hamari et al., 2016), health (Hamari & Koivisto, 2015), and pro-environmental behavior (Ke et al., 2019;Morganti et al., 2017;Ro et al., 2017;Vaezipour et al., 2016). Gamification is defined as the "use of game design elements in non-game contexts" (Deterding et al., 2011, p. 9). ...
... A recent report by Douglas and Brauer (2021) presented a number of gamified smartphone applications for promoting energy reduction and transportation behavior, for which such applications will play an increasingly important role. For example, the authors highlight the so-called Cool Choices application, which aims to motivate players to save energy by earning points and competing with others (Ro et al., 2017). Indeed, studies support the effectiveness of such energy-saving apps by showing that they have a positive effect in everyday life even in the long term (e.g., Powersaver Game, Reduce your Juice, Fijnheer et al., 2019;Mulcahy et al., 2020). ...
The sale of electric vehicles (EVs) is steadily increasing, leading to a huge demand of electricity, which needs to be produced CO2-neutral to make EVs a green alternative. To address this issue, smart charging shifts the charging process to optimal day/night times when (green) energy is available. Especially when charging in public, smart charging may produce external behavioral costs (e.g., charging delays) that should be offset by individual and highlighted environmental benefits. We examined the interactive influence of contextual factors (i.e., charging delay, walking distance, price saving) and behavioral interventions (i.e., framing, social norm, gamification) on green smart charging decisions in an online experiment (N = 286). The results showed that the interventions influenced the decision to choose the smart charging station over a convenient non-sustainable alternative when behavioral costs were small to moderate. In situations with no or only negligible extra costs, participants did not need additional persuasion, whereas in high-cost situations, behavioral interventions were insufficient to influence behavior.
... To statistically analyze the data related to the three theses straw samples was carried out a variance analysis and significance level of 0.05% "Duncan" tests were adopted to compare obtained average values [33,34]. The results emphasize that the Cicoria's machine produced straw bales with an average value of 7.79% as content of impurities and soil. ...
... Compared to apple pomace flour, these characteristics were adversely affected by the carrot product, which consequently contributed to a very low overall consumer acceptance score (mainly due to texture and taste) [33]. Therefore, Gomez and Martinez [34] suggest that FVBF should be skillfully selected to obtain the optimal composition, and thus the appropriate quality of the final product. In general, FVBF can positively affect the color of the final product due to the presence of carotenoids (yellow, orange and red) or anthocyanins (red, purple, blue) [35,36]. ...
... From the data obtained from the Statistical Office (GUS) and representing the studies conducted in the years 2009 -2010 it is known that in Poland most of the producers involved in agricultural production are organic farmers (98% of all producers) [34]. According to data provided by the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection in recent years, organic farming in Poland has been developing dynamically. ...
The aim of this study was to analyse changes on the new farm tractors market in Poland. The work covered the period between 2010 and 2020, and was based on new farm-tractor sales data measured by the number of registrations. The paper presents the semi-annual sales figures, the demand for selected tractor brands, and the sales of new farm tractors representing various engine power segments. New tractors were considered to be those registered for the first time in Poland with either the same or preceding year of manufacture. Between 2010 and 2020, over 144,000 new farm tractors were registered in Poland, with the highest number of tractors sold being recorded in 2012, and the lowest in 2016. Unfortunately, no Polish brand made its way to the top 10 of the top-selling tractors. The Polish market was largely dominated by tractors produced in Western Europe and the USA. The analysis revealed that New Holland tractors (23,780 vehicles) accounted for the largest number of registrations, followed by John Deere (19,453), Zetor (16,398) and Deutz-Fahr (10,508). The total share of these four manufacturers between 2010 and 2020 was 48.6%. In the reference period, vehicles representing the 51–70 kW engine power segment had the largest share (35.17%), followed by 71–100 (24.44%), 31–50 (14.00%), <30 (7.68%), 101–120 (7.4%), 121–140 (4.85%), >161 (3.69%), and 141–160 kW (2.76%). Among the farm tractors representing lower power segments, i.e., up to 50 kW, Kubota was the most frequently purchased brand. As regards higher engine power segments, i.e., 50–140 kW, New Holland tractors held market dominance, while in the >140 kW engine power segment, John Deere tractors were prevalent.KeywordsFarm tractorTractors marketSales of farm tractors in PolandRegistrationEngine power
... To statistically analyze the data related to the three theses straw samples was carried out a variance analysis and significance level of 0.05% "Duncan" tests were adopted to compare obtained average values [33,34]. The results emphasize that the Cicoria's machine produced straw bales with an average value of 7.79% as content of impurities and soil. ...
... Compared to apple pomace flour, these characteristics were adversely affected by the carrot product, which consequently contributed to a very low overall consumer acceptance score (mainly due to texture and taste) [33]. Therefore, Gomez and Martinez [34] suggest that FVBF should be skillfully selected to obtain the optimal composition, and thus the appropriate quality of the final product. In general, FVBF can positively affect the color of the final product due to the presence of carotenoids (yellow, orange and red) or anthocyanins (red, purple, blue) [35,36]. ...
... From the data obtained from the Statistical Office (GUS) and representing the studies conducted in the years 2009 -2010 it is known that in Poland most of the producers involved in agricultural production are organic farmers (98% of all producers) [34]. According to data provided by the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection in recent years, organic farming in Poland has been developing dynamically. ...
The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of using different design of agricultural nozzles on the spray effectiveness in the wheat plants canopy. Moreover, the effect of using worn nozzles on the spray quality was also evaluated. Four types nozzles was used in the tests: TT, TTj60, DG, and XR. They are produced by TeeJet (Spraying Systems Co., Illinois USA). The first three types has a pre-orifice design, while XR was considered as control treatment because it is wide used internationally. Nozzles were subjected to the accelerated wear test according to the ASAE S471 standard. The flow rate after finishing the accelerated wear test was reached to 10% higher than the nominal flow rate, and these nozzles was named “Worn nozzles”. These nozzles (new and worn) was evaluated concerning its spray quality in wheat plants in the laboratory conditions, and using water sensitive papers (WSP). Spray coverage (%), stains diameter (μm), and stains density on square centimetre were calculated. Results data showed that highest spray coverage was achieved using the XR worn nozzles (19%), while using TTj60 nozzle (new and worn) resulted in the lowest value of coverage (14% for both). Biggest stain diameter was registered when using worn DG nozzle (538 μm), lowest value of stain diameter was 445 μm when using new XR nozzle. Concerning the spray density, XR nozzle (new and worn) produced highest spray density, while using worn TT nozzle resulted in the lowest number of stains on square centimetre (333 stain/cm2).
... Interventions solely using gamification showed small positive effects during the intervention (Ro et al., 2017;Casals et al., 2020). Furthermore, Ro et al. (2017) indicated that individuals who changed their behavior during the gamification intervention were likely to still show this behavior at 1-year follow-up. ...
... Interventions solely using gamification showed small positive effects during the intervention (Ro et al., 2017;Casals et al., 2020). Furthermore, Ro et al. (2017) indicated that individuals who changed their behavior during the gamification intervention were likely to still show this behavior at 1-year follow-up. However, engaging individuals to partake in games and maintain long-term involvement was a crucial issue in all gamification interventions. ...
... The study designs allow for biases compromising the quality of the results. For example, self-reported outcomes in questionnaires are vulnerable to biases such as "social desirability, " "recall, " and "reporting" (Meloni et al., 2011;Dowd et al., 2012;Revell, 2014;Sintov et al., 2016;Staddon et al., 2016;Ro et al., 2017;Iweka et al., 2019). Additionally, an individual's behavior might change simply by taking part in an intervention study (Hawthorne effect) (Iweka et al., 2019;Ruiz-Tagle and Schueftan, 2021). ...
To reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, individuals and households play a key role. Behavior change interventions to promote pro-environmental behavior in individuals are needed to reduce emissions globally. This systematic literature review aims to assess the a) evidence-based effectiveness of such interventions and b) the content of very successful interventions without limiting the results to specific emitting sectors or countries. Based on the “PICOS” mnemonic and PRISMA statement, a search strategy was developed, and eligibility criteria were defined. Three databases (Embase, PsycInfo, and Web of Science) were searched to retrieve and review potential literature. As a result, 54 publications from 2010 to 2021 were included in the analysis. The results show that most interventions only have small positive effects or none at all. A total of 15 very successful interventions focused on the sectors of mobility, energy, and waste and incorporated improved (infra-) structures, education, feedback, enablement or made the sustainable option the default. Six evidence-based recommendations for content, timing, and setting are deducted and given for interventions on enhancing pro-environmental behavior (PEB). In summary, although the various interventions and intervention types to promote PEB differ in their effectiveness, very successful interventions have common elements. Future research should focus on high-/low-impact and high-/low-cost behavior to develop interventions that aim at high-impact but low-cost behavior changes, or avoid low-impact but high-cost behavior.
... *two games appeared in mulƟple publicaƟons Ikigailand (Bhardwaj et al., 2020) Facilitating community discussions Community Circles (Thiel et al., 2019) Promoting continued engagement Land.Info Rewards-based incentives Cool Choices (Ro et al., 2017) Diversity of participants Global Sustainability Crossroads Multiple applications or scenarios Parkis (Baušys et al., 2021) these practices and examples of urban application is further explored in the Section 4. Most games assessed in this review were serious games, with only two casual games evaluated in an experimental setting. ...
... For example, Wemyss et al. (2018) noted a significant increase in energy savings amongst households assigned to collaborative and competitive gamified structures (vs. control households) in the Social Power game, and Ro et al. (2017) tested the Cool Choices approach to energy conservation, where individual households and teams accumulate points and prizes by adopting various pro-environmental behaviors, e.g., commuting to work by bike, replacing or eliminating inefficient household appliances, and switching to "clean energy" sources. Furthermore, Aguiar-Castillo et al. (2019) illustrated the effectiveness of the mobile phone application WasteApp in increasing recycling behavior amongst tourists visiting Europe. ...
... As traditional forms of civic participation, such as polls and consultations, do not lend themselves to promoting long-term sustainable engagement, interactive games can provide learning opportunities for individuals and communities that foster continuous engagement in urban planning (Devisch et al., 2016;Gordon & Baldwin-Philippi, 2014). Additionally, through providing an alternative educational approach and learning model, DSSs can be uniquely suited to address knowledge deficits, create buy-in, break ingrained habits, and increase long-term engagement (Devisch et al., 2016;Galeote et al., 2021;Petersen et al., 2019;Ro et al., 2017). Finally, games should have real-world applications that can have beneficial impacts on local communities (Baušys et al., 2021;. ...
Urban residents are often unevenly vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events due to socioeconomic factors and insufficient greenspace. This can be amplified if citizens are not meaningfully consulted in the planning and design decisions , with changes to greenspace having detrimental impacts on local communities, e.g., through green gentrification. These deficiencies can be addressed through inclusive landscape-level collaborative planning and design processes, where residents are fully engaged in the co-creation of urban greenspaces. A promising way to support co-creation efforts is gamifying technology-based interactive decision support systems (DSSs). Gamification, the incorporation of video game elements or play into non-game contexts, has previously been used for DSSs in urban planning and to inform the public about the impacts of climate change. However, this has yet to combine informational goals with design-play functionality in the redesign of urban greenspaces. We conducted a review of state-of-the-art video game DSSs used for urban planning engagement and climate education. Here, we propose that gamified DSSs should incorporate educational elements about climate change alongside the interactive and engaging elements of urban planning games, particularly for real-world scenarios. This cross-disciplinary approach can facilitate improved community engagement in greenspace planning, informing design and management strategies to ensure multiple benefits for people and the environment in climate-vulnerable cities.
... In order to enhance the penetration and feedback of education, a large number of studies have explored how the human-computer interaction (Web API, VR, etc.)-based environmental education scenarios may contribute to stimulating individuals' subjective initiatives [25]. Ro et al. (2017) developed the Cool Choices game, which aims to guide individuals to recognize the environmental benefits of energy savings, and found that the testee who participated in the game reduced household electricity consumption in a short term (generally within 6 months) [26]. Nelson et al. (2020) found that by comparing the viewing experience of the same biodiversity conservation film in the ways of virtual reality (VR) and ordinary 2D, the former helps to increase the individual's perception of conservation issues [27]. ...
... In order to enhance the penetration and feedback of education, a large number of studies have explored how the human-computer interaction (Web API, VR, etc.)-based environmental education scenarios may contribute to stimulating individuals' subjective initiatives [25]. Ro et al. (2017) developed the Cool Choices game, which aims to guide individuals to recognize the environmental benefits of energy savings, and found that the testee who participated in the game reduced household electricity consumption in a short term (generally within 6 months) [26]. Nelson et al. (2020) found that by comparing the viewing experience of the same biodiversity conservation film in the ways of virtual reality (VR) and ordinary 2D, the former helps to increase the individual's perception of conservation issues [27]. ...
Improvement in an individuals’ cognition is the key to promote garbage classification. This study takes university students as the research subjects, through three educational interventions, including the self-learning, heuristic learning, and interactive learning ways, to seek the most effective intervention based upon event-related potentials (ERPs) that is beneficial to enhance cognition of garbage classification. The results show that the experimental subjects induced P300 and LPP components, representing attentional changes and cognitive conflicts in classification judgments. There are differences in the amplitudes and peak latency of the two components corresponding to different interventions, indicating that the three educational interventions are able to improve the individual’s cognition level of garbage classification within a certain period of time. The interactive-learning intervention triggers the largest amplitudes of P300 and LPP, as well as the smallest peak latency, indicating its effect is the best. Such results provide insight into the design for an appropriate strategy in garbage classification education. The study also shows that an EEG signal can be used as the endogenous neural indicator to measure the performance of garbage classification under different educational interventions.
... Implementation of proenvironmental management includes architectural planning and landscape design, water and energy efficiency, waste reduction, education and training for employees, socialization to build environmental awareness, increased knowledge for management about environmental conservation that will make environmental policies in organizations, purchasing and marketing environmentally friendly, as well as voluntary pro-environment activities such as environmentally friendly labeling, certification, and environmental audits and support for the community (Mensah 2019). The relationship between Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB) and Sustainable Industrial Performance (SIP) has been investigated by (Miller et al., 2015), (Allen, 2016), (Zientara, P., & Zamojska, A., 2018), (Ro et al., 2017), (Uren et al., 2019). ...
... Some literature states that there is a relationship between Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB), Green Marketing Mix (GMM), and Sustainable Industry Performance (SIP) for hotels as follows: Hypothesis 1: Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB) has a positive effect on economic sustainability. This hypothesis is supported by previous research from (Ro et al 2017). Hypothesis 2: Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB) has a positive effect on environmental sustainability. ...
The increasing number of tourist destinations in the world has led to an increase in the number of tourists and their supporting industries, such as the hotel industry. This increase should not have a negative impact on the natural environment and people who live near tourist destinations. Sustainable Industrial Performance (SIP) is one indicator to find out whether industrial development has an impact and becomes a benchmark for industry sustainability in the natural and social environment. Sustainable Industrial Performance (SIP) is measured from three (3) factors, namely economy, natural environment, and socio-culture. Pro-Environment Behavior (PEB) is one indicator of initiatives and efforts made by people who work in the sector/industry to continue to maintain the sustainability of the surrounding environmental conditions. Green Marketing Mix (GMM) is a variable commonly used by marketing people in marketing a product, be it goods or services. Green Marketing Mix (GMM) provides characteristics about the importance of creating goods or services with green principles. This research is expected to be one of the green practice concept models, namely activities to create and manage industries with the concept of sustainable business, namely the benefits of sustainable (economic) business, sustainability for the natural environment, and sustainable for the social environment of the hospitality industry
... For example, gamification positively impacts awareness, learning, and behavioral outcomes related to energy efficiency [27][28][29]; encourages walking, biking, and public transportation use [29,30]; persuades drivers to adopt fuel-efficient driving habits [31]; and supports environmentally friendly dietary choices [32]. In addition, gamification has been used to promote water conservation [33] and heating cost reduction [34]. ...
... Specifically, regarding behaviors related to the circular economy, previous studies have shown that gamification can serve to reduce waste production [34] and promote recycling behaviors both among tourists [35] and in individual households [13,14,36]. In addition, serious games have recently been developed to teach knowledge about the circular economy and corresponding individual behaviors [37,38]. ...
This paper encircles explorative design research in a multiple stakeholder triple helix project concerning circular economy and household recycling. Design ethnography was employed to find implications for outlining a gamification artifact that would fa-cilitate recycling behaviors. We collected our data during 27 weeks by attending two field sites: Site A, project stakeholder meetings and a participatory design workshop, and Site B, semi-structured interviews in the household stakeholders’ residences. Our thematic analysis of the sites’ collected ethnographic record extrapolated two specific categories: Stakeholder requirements and Gamification ruleset, together en-folding five key-themes and various sub-themes that could be used to inform the de-sign of a gamification artifact aimed at recycling. Also, based on our research, we propose two research propositions regarding storytelling and understanding for fur-ther gamification design researchers to investigate.
... Individuals linked in the social network support each other by promoting and motivating environmentally friendly behaviour, recognising that they are not alone in their actions. The important lesson is that these processes increase awareness of their environmental impact (Joachain & Klopfert, 2012;Ro et al., 2017). ...
... The group working and social networks strengthened eco-friendly behaviours. Participants who felt encouraged by others undertook actions more frequently (Kuntz et al., 2012), felt related to the community (Lee et al., 2013), and could coach each other (Ro et al., 2017). ...
The SARS-CoV19 pandemic exposed a broad spectrum of challenges for modern cities, societies and the environment at large. The post-Covid transformation requires new social, ecological and educational solutions, adjusted to modern challenges, but also equipped with technological advances that allow for digital inclusion and sustainable urban development to benefit the local economy and society. Many information systems designed to enable pro-environmental behaviours are being tested or implemented worldwide, mostly in developed countries; however, most of them focus on a sectorial approach only. On the other hand, community currencies (CCs) consider social, economic, and environmental issues yet do not fully exploit the potential of the current technological advancement. Therefore, the paper describes the process of defining the theoretical framework for Greencoin as an information system designed to be a supportive tool while shaping urban adaptability and mitigating climate change, within which a CC is embedded. The 120 social currencies and information systems (IS) analysed in this research provide valuable data that is essential to shaping the framework of the Greencoin IS, to be implemented in the subsequent stages of the project. Greencoin IS aims to operate based on an application, the work resulting from studies of existing solutions, their functionalities and technological aspects, which enable social engagement and eco-inclusion. It responds to the question of how the new types of currencies and applications enriched with gamification elements can encourage residents to get involved in shaping urban resilience. This research goal is to build a future framework for Greencoin IS based on the performed systematic literature review and case studies.
... Real-world results point to 2-3% energy savings in the long term. The work of Johnson et al. [25] provided a recent review of the use of such techniques, while Ro et al. [37] reports on positive outcomes of gamification on both sustainability awareness and energy savings. A collection of sustainability-related serious games is available on Games4Sustainability [5]. ...
... Regarding the successful integration of gamification techniques for energy saving and sustainability awareness, while there is a large number of works that report on positive outcomes, e.g., [27,31,37], at the same time there are also works that report on less positive results and stress the acute need for taking action [41]. This controversy is partially based on the fact that there is no commonly acceptable way on how results are measured and reported; [38] provides a detailed discussion on common pitfalls and mistakes made by teams working on these issues. ...
Sustainability awareness in young people, and especially students, is growing in importance. To this end, serious games and playful experiences are used to enable students and teachers to actively study climate change issues and respective challenges. Many approaches have been proposed, ranging from quiz-based web applications to full-blown game experiences. We discuss several related design aspects through the lens of our own experience with gamification inside educational environments. Our results derive from the use of a playful web application focusing on sustainability and energy issues, developed within the GAIA project and used in 25 schools with 3762 registered users. We also present results from surveys answered by 723 students and 32 educators. Our findings show that a simple playful experience can yield good results within educational environments when taking into account their constraints, integrating the intervention to schools' everyday life and placing it within a strategy that includes other tools.
... H4: The PEB has a direct and positive relationship to Economic sustainability. This hypothesis is approved from the results of previous studies byRo et al. (2017) H5: The PEB has a direct and positive relationship to environmental sustainability. This hypothesis is approved from the results of previous studies byZientara & Zamojska (2016);Uren et al. (2018);Gautam (2020);Elf et al. (2020). ...
The growth in the number of hotels due to the increase in the tourism sector encourages the existence of
policies that regulate behavior that supports the environment for hotel stakeholders. This is because the
increasing number of the hotel industry in an area will have an influence on the natural environment,
socio-cultural conditions of the community, and the economy. This study analyzes the interaction of ProEnvironmental Behavior (PEB) with Green Marketing Mix (GMM) as Mediator to achieve Sustainable
Industry Performance (SIP). The study was conducted with 205 respondents with the position of manager
or general manager at hotels in East Java Province, Indonesia. To ensure data distribution, one hotel is
only represented by one person. The research method was carried out quantitatively using SmartPLS
ver.3.0. The results of the study indicate that GMM has a dual role in the interaction relationship with SIP.
The first role is that GMM directly has a positive relationship with each component of the SIP indicator,
namely: economic, environmental, and social. The second role of GMM is to become a successful
mediator as a link between PEB and the three indicators that make up the SIP. The function and role of
GMM can be proposed for the hotel industry in the future in creating a sustainable industry.
... In terms of pro-environmental behavior, Taufik et al. (2015) illustrated the warm-glow effect in two studies showing that participants felt good when learning that they had behaved in an environmentally friendly manner. In conceptual symmetry, a person who feels positive emotions generally behaves in a more environmentally friendly manner (Ro et al., 2017) and the mere anticipation of positive emotions has been shown to induce pro-environmental behavior (Bergquist et al., 2020;Taufik et al., 2016). In a field study on recycling and donation behavior, what could be conceptualized as a warm-glow nudge was designed to create an anticipation of positive emotions and elicited a stronger effect than a descriptive-injunctive norm (Bergquist et al., 2020). ...
Meat consumption is associated with both public health risks and substantial CO2 emissions. In a large‐scale field‐experiment, we applied four nudges to the digital menus in 136 hamburger restaurants. The nudges promoted vegetarian food purchases by either (1) changing the menu position of vegetarian food, or aligning vegetarian food with (2) a hedonic, taste‐focused nudge, (3) the warm‐glow effect, or (4) a descriptive social norm. These nudges were thus aimed to shift salience toward a certain goal or the salience of a specific alternative. Vegetarian food purchases were measured in two datasets analyzing if nudges affected customers' “route” to ordering vegetarian food (29,640 observations), and the total number of vegetarian food sold during the intervention (346,081 observations). Results showed that the position nudge affected customers route to buying vegetarian food. More specifically, making the “green category” more accessible made more customers order through that category. Interestingly, this did not affect the total number of vegetarian sales. However, results indicate that nudges that utilize the salience of goals, in particular hedonic goals, may have an overall positive effect on total vegetarian sales.
... With the study, the game-based application has supported and guided students in attaining learning goals and tasks. Moreover, the game encourages the adoption of pro-environmental attitudes and conduct (Ro et al., 2017). Teachers must connect with students in a wide range of ways as society moves toward a technologically advanced future and produce skilled learners for the digital world. ...
In the transition to the delivery of instruction, game-based learning in physical education is the key to filling the instructional gap by giving each student the freedom to develop their skills in the 21st century. This study employed a qualitative research design using a phenomenological approach to acquire an in-depth understanding of students' learning experiences through game-based learning in Physical Education. Participants were chosen through purposive sampling which was participated by 7 students from the Grade 10 level in one of the secondary public schools in the Philippines. Codes and themes were transcribed in the study. Based on the research results, three themes emerged: innovative approach, the functionality of the application, and student engagement and authentic learning experience. Physical education teachers have become innovative and creative in how to deliver instruction, especially in the areas of cognitive and skills acquisition using a game-based approach. This is done to help all students to be creative and adapt to the modern learning environment. This application was practical, usable and accessible for every student both inside and outside of the classroom with offline and online features. This study will equip Physical Education teachers with clarity and a road map to the modern world. This will also provide the required support for students to shift away from traditional classroom learning and become more innovative by producing mobile apps that provide students with games and the freedom to absorb the lesson through a game-based approach.
... In order to fulfill their corporate social responsibility, many companies have incorporated social responsibility elements into their gamification designs [9]. Games are addictive because of the ability of game elements or mechanics to unconsciously produce repetitive behavior in users [37], and gamification exploits this feature of game elements or mechanics by combining them with non-game tasks to improve the execution of non-game tasks [38]. While the addictive effects of game elements or mechanics lead to a short-term boost in the user's time with the mobile app, they are equally exposed to reduced engagement and game withdrawal behavior due to long-term addictive use [6]. ...
Mobile applications can integrate games or gamification elements to build a game metaverse, thus increasing use duration. Research on game metaverses is relatively scarce, mainly focusing on the positive effects of game elements. Few studies have considered the push-away power of game or gamification elements. In this paper, we explore the role of pro-environmental cues in mitigating the push-away power of game or gamification elements from the perspective of the adverse effects of game elements. A total of 250 participants were recruited to engage in two two-factor between-subject studies. Study 1 demonstrated that pro-environmental cues increased self-consciousness during the game and mitigated adverse outcomes after the game. The results of Study 2 further supported the findings of Study 1. The results showed that the perception of pleasure during the game reduced the effects of pro-environmental cues. The pro-environmental cues mitigated adverse outcomes after the game experience when perceiving lower or moderate enjoyment. In comparison, the effects of pro-environmental cues on mitigating negative consequences after the game experience were insignificant when experiencing higher enjoyment.
... However, follow-up periods for two of these studies (Oppong-Tawiah et al., 2020;Orland et al., 2014) were very short (two and three weeks, respectively), preventing thorough conclusions on long-term effects. While Ro et al. (2017) did demonstrate maintenance of behaviour change at one year, the intervention took place in a commercial setting, limiting analysis of longterm impacts in other settings. Thus while serious games appear to positively effect energy behaviour, behaviour analysts seeking to use such methodologies should consider including analysis of long-term impacts. ...
While the efficacy of serious games for energy efficiency is well established, analysis of how such approaches employ behavioural principles has yet to be considered. This study presents a systematic review and content analysis of the use of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) within serious games for energy efficiency, defined as the use of gamification within interventions. By exploring the use of BCTs, increased understanding of the mechanisms of change underlying serious games for energy efficiency can be obtained. Using search terms relating to (1) serious games and (2) energy efficiency, seven databases were searched. Content analysis was completed using the behaviour change taxonomy v1 (BCTv1; Michie et al., Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 46(1), 81–95, 2013). Twenty-one studies met inclusion criteria. Serious games targeted residential (n = 10), commercial (n = 8), educational (n = 1), and public (n = 2) settings. Average decreases in energy use of 15.2% in residential settings, 18.4% in commercial settings and 9.9% in educational and public settings were found. Across serious games, 36 individual BCTs were found with an average of 9.45 individual BCTs per game. Common BCTs included monitoring of behaviour by others without feedback (n = 18), feedback on behaviour (n = 17) and self-monitoring of behaviour (n = 12). Results highlight the positive impacts of serious games on energy consumption behaviour and demonstrate the utility of BCTs within such games. Opportunities exist to further enhance the efficacy of serious games through better leveraging behavioural techniques using knowledge from behaviour analysis. Behaviour analysts should consider serious games when developing interventions to support energy behaviour change.
... To reduce energy waste, government departments or companies have devised many disruptions to influence people's daily energy use habits, and combining environmentally friendly behaviour with gamification has proven to be an effective disruption. For example, in the six months after residents played the sustainability game, people used significantly less electricity in their homes [53]. Gamification of environmental knowledge, in a game-based reward mechanism, can enhance sustainable behaviour of residents in the short term [16]. ...
Game strategies are widely used by companies to attract users and increase their stickiness. At the same time, the protection of the ecological environment is also an important expression of corporate social responsibility. This paper explores the integration of social responsibility with gaming strategies from the psychological perspective of game withdrawal, and explores the incorporation of social responsibility as an element in gamification design to reduce user withdrawal behaviour, thereby increasing individual’s environmentally sustainable behaviour. We evidenced our hypothesis through two studies. Study one proved our hypothesis by recruiting 106 university undergraduates (from Wuhan University, mean age 20, of whom 47 were female and 59 were male) to prove our hypothesis by recalling previous experiences with different types of games. Study two further tested our hypothesis by manipulating participants’ guilt through randomly recruiting 196 participants (mean age 35, of whom 88 were female and 108 were male, 35 of them were students, 107 were office workers and 54 were from other sectors) from different industries through the questionnaire research website Credamo. The findings show that incorporating social responsibility elements into the design of games can make users engage in pro-social behaviour while playing the game, and the guilt that users feel because of the game will be compensated by pro-social behaviour, thus reducing the game frequency and duration and improving the intent of pro-social behaviour. At the same time, players’ self-control moderates the effect of guilt on game play volume under a socially responsible gamification design.
... The growing number of community-based programs not only enables learners to develop their everyday educational practices but also provides an opportunity to deepen research in the field of a learning environment. Researchers are expanding their analysis by addressing issues of pro-environmental behavior, sustainability interventions (Ro, 2017), social learning (Kaaronen & Strelkovskii, 2020), and environmental knowledge (Pothitou et al., 2016). The conducted research allows gaining knowledge about people's habits, attitudes, perceptions, and values regarding ecology issues. ...
Education for sustainable development supports the improvement of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors related to global challenges such as climate change, global warming and environmental degradation, among others. It is increasingly taking place through projects based on information and communication technologies. The effectiveness of the actions taken depends not only on the quality of the project activities or the sophistication of the innovative tools used. Social commitment also depends on the beliefs and moral judgements manifested by potential recipients of educational activities on environmental issues. This study aimed to identify the beliefs and moral judgements that may facilitate or hinder the implementation of educational activities based on information and communication technology, shaping pro-environmental attitudes and behavior among city dwellers. Based on the co-creation workshops conducted, five general categories emerged: responsibility, sense of empowerment, local leadership, real eco-approach, and eco-knowledge. The research findings may contribute to the design of educational activities dedicated to shaping the pro-environmental behavior of city dwellers.
... Games aimed at environmental education are considered "serious games", designed to go beyond simple entertainment and offer multiple learning opportunities. Through rules, goals, rewards, and the way they encourage divergent thinking, they promote learning and are considered appropriate for the adolescent and young adult populations [3,4]. Similarly, apps designed for formal and informal environmental education promote awareness of climate change as well as change in pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. ...
As the issues related to climate change intensify, new methods to raise awareness of environmental issues, foster pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, and offer a viable alternative to traditional environmental education are needed. In recent years, various computer games and mobile apps targeting sustainability-related information, attitude, and behaviors have been developed. In this systematic review, we aimed to verify which pro-environmental information, attitudes, and behaviors are targeted by serious games and gamified apps, how their efficiency is tested, and the main results. A total of 29 studies were included in the analysis. The results show that serious games and apps were used to decrease energy consumption, water spending, and food consumption, and increase sustainable mobility. Furthermore, technology was used to offer pro-environmental education regarding a myriad of issues. Most interventions were successful and some of them did have significant effects while others provided only short-term changes. The limitations of the current approaches are discussed together with some future expansions that can help develop more efficiency in this domain.
... In another study, which used the energy consumption of a virtual house, game-playing produced a similar decrease in real-life energy consumption (Gangolells et al. 2020). Further studies reported that games could improve players' perceptions and behaviors towards environmental issues: recycling (Centieiro et al. 2011), energy waste (Ro et al. 2017), paper waste (Ahn et al. 2014). However, in-game behavior could induce pro-environmental attitudes and behavior with the outcome depending largely on the game mechanics. ...
Video games have long been considered an effective educational tool. Environmental education studies have found that games positively affect the feeling of nature connectedness, producing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. With growing urbanization, video games also provide chances to interact with nature. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizon (ACNH) became a household name, with millions of copies sold worldwide. The article used the Bayesian multilevel model to analyze 640 survey responses of ACNH game players from various online communities. The correlations between the perception of limited resources and virtual planting and exploiting behaviors with the varying effect among ethnicities were explored. The findings suggested positive correlations between the perception and in-game actions among all ethnicities, regardless of whether the actions are planting or exploiting. While further evidence is needed, the findings suggest the restraints of game mechanics. To foster a pro-environmental culture, stakeholders can consider video games a novel technological aid to environmental education.
... As the main objective of the current research was not to profile the attitudes and behaviors of any specific ecotourism segment but to investigate the impact of materialism interest on people's attitudes towards ecotourism, this research represented ecotourism in prevalent meaning using the common features listed in the studies instead of diminishing it down to any particular ecotourism segment. Hence, eco-tourists were classified in the paper as those who are concerned not only with cultural and ecological preservation but also with wildlife and natural experiences and analysis [21]. This illustration clearly indicates that eco-tourists plan to visit an eco-tourism site not just to relax and escape, but also to learn about ecology and biodiversity [22]. ...
The goal of this research was to check the impact of eco-tourism attitude, eco-tourism interest, and destination image on eco-intention. The sample size of this study was 309, gathered using convenience sampling. The data collection instrument was developed using five-point Likert scale. The data was analyzed by using PLS-SEM. The findings of data analysis showed that the ecotourism attitude was positively affecting the ecotourism interest. However, ecotourism attitude was not significantly affecting the ecotourism intention. The ecotourism interest was positively affecting the ecotourism intention. The destination image was also significantly affecting ecotourism intention. Ecotourism service operators may work with tourism community members for creating projects targeting domestic people and provide them with learning experiences regarding nature, ecological and cultural heritage protection attempts and initiatives, and how ecotourism will support such efforts and initiatives and conserve them.
... However, little evidence supports its efficacy to translate into behavioral change. Likewise, it has been shown that attitude changes such as a deep understanding of individual environmental impacts are not sufficient or even necessary for behavior change (Ro et al., 2017). Instead, there is evidence pointing towards the opposite logic; the successful adoption of new behaviors can promote attitude changes towards the reason triggering that behavior (Kuntz et al., 2012). ...
This paper aims to analyze the extent to which gamification is an effective alternative to promote the adoption of democratic pro-environmental behaviors and contribute towards the creation of the relative organization culture. The accepted definition of gamification for this paper is the process of enhancing a service with affordances for gameful experiences to support users’ overall value creation. This marketing perspective approach focuses more on the effects obtained as a consequence of activating intrinsic and extrinsic motivation through gamified systems rather than the analysis of the characteristics of the game design elements and the incentives for its practical and actual adaptation and utilization within organizations. Furthermore, the proposed model is linked with the ESG criteria to further incentivize its organization’s adaptation from theory to practice. Finally, the paper indicates limitations and areas of further research towards green ocean strategies that can maximize its applications and impact.
... Research on the relationship between the implementation of an environmental management system and sustainable performance in an organization was conducted by (Martín-de Castro et al., 2016). Several studies have also been conducted on the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and sustainable performance in organizations or industries (e.g., Farooq et al., 2021Farooq et al., , 2022Foster et al., 2022;Hunt & Harbor, 2019;Kim et al., 2019;Mat et al., 2020;Miller et al., 2015;Ro et al., 2017;Yusliza et al., 2020). They found that the behavior of organizational members who support the green movement affects the results of organizational and environmental performance. ...
Growth in the number of tourist destinations encourages the number of tourists and other fields that support it. The hotel industry that is increasing in number in an area will impact the environment, both the natural, social and economic environment. We analyze the influence of Green Marketing Management as a mediator of the Environmental Management System and Pro-Environmental Behavior to achieve Sustainable Industry Performance in the hospitality industry. This study was conducted with 135 respondents with the position of manager or general manager. There are 17 hypotheses built on indicators of 4 main parameters. The analysis uses Smart-PLS to examine the relationship between the dimensions tested. The results of this study are: (1) Environmental Management System and Pro-Environmental Behavior have a significant and positive influence on the Green Marketing Mix; (2) Only the Green Marketing Mix has a significant and positive influence on Economic Sustainability; (3) Only the Green Marketing Mix has a significant and positive influence on Environmental Sustainability; (4) The Environmental Management System and Green Marketing Mix have a significant and positive influence on Social Sustainability, with the strongest influence being given by the Green Marketing Mix (which has the greatest path coefficient); (5) The effect of Pro-Environmental Behavior on Sustainability is entirely dependent on mediation relationships through the Green Marketing Mix.
... When most people cannot access the wilderness, virtual experience with games could allow players to have a new perception of nature and increase connectedness with nature (Yeo et al. 2020). Players were recorded to exhibit out-of-game environmental-friendly attitudes and behaviors after playing games, such as energy saving (Orland et al. 2014;Ro et al. 2017;Casals et al. 2020), recycling (Centieiro et al. 2011), and waste reduction (Ahn et al. 2014). Hence, even though humans are equipped to distinguish between fictional and real worlds, which could mitigate games' effect on humans (Ferguson and Dyck 2012), games are still a promising communication tool that helps impart knowledge and potentially change attitudes and behaviors. ...
Video games have the potential to be a tool for communicating pro-environmental values. The present study examines the correlation between players’ environmental attitudes and their interaction with virtual natural resources. This study constructs Bayesian ordinal logistic models to analyze survey data of 640 Animal Crossing: New Horizon (ACNH) players from 29 countries. Results show that the frequency of catching in-game animals (fish and insects) is positively correlated with the level of human centeredness in environmental attitudes. In addition, less anthropocentric players tend to use more sustainable methods to collect woods in ACNH. Such a particular way of interacting with in-game animals and trees based on their species may be attributable to players’ environmental attitudes and game designs. This paper discusses how game design can play a role in promoting pro-environmental behaviors and highlights the moral implications of interactions with non-human beings.
... The gamification of education through the incorporation of game design elements into educational settings is considered as a developing approach for increasing learners' motivation and engagement (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017). Gamification is beneficial to ESD, as it is widely adopted to promote behavioral changes in engagement in pro-environmental behaviors (Du et al., 2020;Morganti et al., 2017;Ouariachi et al., 2020;Ro et al., 2017). By harnessing individuals' abilities and interests, gamification can further advance sustainability communication (Rajanen & Rajanen, 2019). ...
This chapter explores the intricate socio–politico–cultural factors affecting the learning of Thai design students and examines the potential of games and gamification in sustainability learning as an unconventional design pedagogical approach in Thai higher education. At the heart of this chapter is an extensive participatory action research case study from the Sustainable Design course of two universities in Bangkok. The project allows students to learn from game design to raise awareness of sustainability-related issues and use the games to enhance their sustainability learning through peer interactions. Games and gamification can assist Thai design students in obtaining skills essential to education for sustainable development while reducing power distance and uncertainty avoidance among members of the classroom. Research findings also reveal the complex relationships between game-based pedagogical practice and cultural characteristics, such as fun–pleasure orientation and interdependence orientation.
... It was used to explore players' attitudes towards using wheelchairs as part of health game applications [117]. Moreover, it was adopted to change behaviours by promoting pro-environmental behaviours [113]. ...
Over the years, there has been a significant increase in the adoption of game-based interventions for behaviour change associated with many fields such as health, education, and psychology. This is due to the significance of the players’ intrinsic motivation that is naturally generated to play games and the substantial impact they can have on players. Many review papers measure the effectiveness of the use of gaming on changing behaviours; however, these studies neglect the game features involved in the game design process, which have an impact of stimulating behaviour change. Therefore, this paper aimed to identify game design mechanics and features that are reported to commonly influence behaviour change during and/or after the interventions. This paper identified key theories of behaviour change that inform the game design process, providing insights that can be adopted by game designers for informing considerations on the use of game features for moderating behaviour in their own games.
... Moreover, the game's impact on the employees and the product development tasks at the company will be assessed as well. Testing the long-term effects is a common practice when the aim is to change human behaviour and attitudes, including interventions using games for sustainable behaviour, to make sure the effects persist (Ro et al. 2017;Wemyss et al. 2019). First of all, testing activities will be scaled up and involve a larger number of players, gathering more qualitative data from game activity, as well as performing a quantitative evaluation. ...
Sustainability considerations are traditionally difficult to trade-off with technical and business requirements in an early design phase, and design teams need methods and tools to negotiate and reflect on how sustainability contributes to profitability and customer value fulfilment. The commoditization of modelling and simulation techniques points to
gamification and serious gaming as emerging approaches to help the design team explore the desired behaviour of a solution with users and stakeholders along the life cycle. The objective of this paper is to explore how serious games can be used to raise decision-makers' awareness of the value and cost implications of being (or not being) 'sustainability
compliant' when designing products and systems. The paper initially presents the findings from a descriptive study focused on the definition of 'design support' intended to raise sustainability awareness through serious gaming. It further describes the development, application and testing of one of such games for material selection in the aerospace
industry.
... Others call for more research on habits (Peattie 2010;Wynes et al. 2018) or highlighting habits as a strong barrier/motivator for pro-environmental behaviours (e.g. Dharmesti et al. 2020;Huang et al. 2020;Russell and Knoeri 2020), and still some others draw on habit theory when designing behaviour-specific interventions (Staats et al. 2004;Winter and Burn 2010;Ro et al. 2017;Heidbreder et al. 2020). We only found a few articles addressing the roles of habits for sustainability transformations. ...
Habits are the fundamental basis for many of our daily actions and can be powerful barriers to behavioural change. Still, habits are not included in most narratives, theories, and interventions applied to sustainable behaviour. One reason societies struggle to reach policy goals and people fail to change towards more pro-environmental lifestyles might be that many behaviours are now bound by strong habits that override knowledge and intentions to act. In this perspective article, we provide three arguments for why pro-environmental habits are a needed research agenda in sustainability science: (1) habit theory highlights how behaviour is heavily reliant on automatic processes, (2) the environmental context sets boundary conditions for behaviour, shape habits, and cues action responses, and (3) our habits and past behaviour shape our values and self-identity. These arguments highlight the transformative potential of looking at sustainable behaviours through a habit lens. We believe a research agenda on pro-environmental habits could generate a more holistic understanding of sustainable behaviours and complement today’s dominating approaches which emphasize reasoned decisions and intrinsic motivations such as values, norms, and intentions to understand and predict pro-environmental behaviour. We highlight evident knowledge gaps and practical benefits of considering habit theory to promote pro-environmental behaviours, and how habit architecture could be utilized as a strong leverage point when designing, modifying, and building urban environments.
... Because of these positive effects, gamification is increasingly adopted in various use cases to promote behavioral change, for example towards engagement in pro-environmental behavior (e.g. Du et al., 2020;Ro et al., 2017), physical activity (e.g. Dadaczynski et al., 2017;Lier & Breuer, 2019) or knowledge transfer (e.g. ...
Despite increasing scientific interest in explaining how gamification supports positive affect and motivation, behavior change and learning, there is still a lack of an overview of the current theoretical understanding of the psychological mechanisms of gamification. Previous research has adopted several different angles and remains fragmented. Taking both an observational and explanatory perspective, we examined the theoretical foundations used in research on gamification, serious games and game-based learning through a systematic literature review and then discussed the commonalities of their core assumptions. The overview shows that scientists have used a variety of 118 different theories. Most of them share explicitly formulated or conceptual connections. From their interrelations, we derived basic principles that help explain how gamification works: Gamification can illustrate goals and their relevance, nudge users through guided paths, give users immediate feedback, reinforce good performance and simplify content to manageable tasks. Gamification mechanics can allow users to pursue individual goals and choose between different progress paths, while the system can adapt complexity to the user's abilities. Social gamification elements may enable social comparison and connect users to support each other and work towards a common goal.
... Online and mobile environmental games are also seeing some promise in research, enabling their players to reduce energy consumption from appliances in the home (Gustafsson, Bång & Svahn, 2009) or raising awareness of energy efficiency and sustainable purchases (Wood et al., 2014). Additionally, real-life games that move the gameplay session into nature are also becoming gradually more common, such as in the form of a card-based approach to locating invasive seaweed species (Skukan, Borrell, Ordás & Miralles, 2020) or gaining points for performing pro-environmental activities in the home (Ro, Brauer, Kuntz, Shukla & Bensch, 2017). Aside from preliminary pilot tests of basic game prototypes, many of the available research papers on serious environmental games either contain research proposals rather than results (e.g., Chen, Bodicherla, Scott & Whittinghill, 2014;Despeisse, 2018;Ghilardi-Lopes et al., 2013;Uribe & Cobos, 2014) or lists of available environmental games on the market for future researchers to utilize (e.g., Ouariachi, Olvera-Lobo & Gutiérrez-Pérez, 2018;Ulrich, 1997). ...
This thesis serves as a contribution towards the general understanding of how, when, and why environmental and sustainability-oriented games affect their players, and how they can be utilized as tools for increasing environmental literacy. It consists of three qualitative empirical research papers, where the overarching purpose has been to gain an understanding of how games can be used in strengthening the environmental literacy of their players. The results overall show that games can be effective tools for environmental education, especially regarding their innate ability to simplify and visualize complex systems and environmental issues that otherwise appear distant or invisible.
... These pro-environmental actions are made visible to other players on the game's online leaderboard. An evaluation study revealed that playing 'Cool Choices' led to long-term reductions in electricity consumption, especially among individuals who initially consumed high amounts of energy [21]. Other researchers found that playing 'Energy Cat,' a game designed for touch-tablets in which participants attempt to make a virtual home energy efficient, led to neither significant long-term reductions in electricity and gas usage [22] nor to better knowledge about energy consumption [23]. ...
Gamification, the application of game design principles to a nongaming context, has been used to promote pro-environmental behaviors. Such principles have been implemented in board games, team competitions, electronic games, smartphone apps, and in apps that researchers developed primarily to collect data. We review the games and apps that have been evaluated in empirical research in the last 5 years and provide a list of apps and games that have yet to be tested. Gamification has been used for sustainability education, energy reduction, transportation, air quality, waste management, and water conservation. Although we do not know yet why certain games and apps are more effective than others, gamification appears to be a promising avenue for preventing climate change.
... Another trick for bringing rewards into the moment is gamification, or making the desired behavior fun. For example, in one randomized controlled trial with nearly 2000 households, those playing a new 'Cool Choices' competitive game, in which they earned points for energy-saving actions, reduced electricity consumption even six months later (as verified by electricity bills), and the effect was strongest among previous high-energy-use consumers [57]. ...
Affect and emotion have potent motivational properties that can be leveraged to promote desirable behavior change. Although interventions often employ fear appeals in an effort to motivate change, both theory and a growing body of empirical evidence suggest that positive affect and emotions can promote change by serving as proximal rewards for desired behaviors. This article reviews examples of such efforts in the domains of healthy diet and exercise, prosocial behavior, and pro-environmental behavior, documenting the strong potential offered by behavioral interventions using this approach. The extent to which positive affect experience prospectively drives behavior change (as distinct from rewarding the desired behavior) is less clear. However, a variety of possible indirect pathways involving incidental effects of positive affect and specific positive emotions deserve rigorous future study.
... While exploring gamification for sustainable consumption is not an entirely new concept [73,80,107,108] the scientific novelty of this research lies on its design and conceptual model, as it builds upon an intent-impact three dimensional framework [30] The research provided an explicit structure to relate the two disciplines of study, gamification and sustainable consumption, and focusing their outcomes to their contribution to practice shifts in the areas of transportation, food and leisure. It is also important to acknowledge the limitations that this research faced, like the potential bias to perform the analysis of documents, as it was carried out by one person, even though the design, findings and results were discussed among the authors of the paper. ...
Gamification is a new trend that has gained increasing importance in climate protection. In recent years, researchers have begun to integrate game elements into non-gaming contexts to encourage green behaviors. The city of Sierre jumped on the bandwagon and initiated a project aiming to use gamification to encourage its population to engage in green behaviors. The research focuses on identifying the barriers and motivators for people to engage in green actions in order to diminish or enhance them using games. Followed by a series of focus groups, 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. The main result shows a significant gap between attitude and behavior despite a high level of awareness and positive sustainable intentions. Based on research propositions that have been confronted with the scientific literature, Sierre has therefore collaborated with the HES-SO Valais-Wallis to realize a gaming app on the theme of sustainable development for the population called ECOTREE.KeywordsSustainabilityGamificationBehavior change
Gamification consists of applying typical elements of game-playing environments to other areas of activity. In various fields such as medicine, education, or business, gamification has been explored as an efficient vehicle to foster real-life predetermined targets or improve a real-life action's effectiveness. Amidst the current energy transition, gamification has emerged as a promising strategy to make the energy transition exciting to end-users, bridging information gaps, increasing learning, and motivating behaviour change. This study presents the design and development of a gamified solution as part of the Smart2B H2020 project. The primary objective is to create an excellent user-engagement experience while encouraging and fostering energy literacy and behaviour change. Leveraging the increasing digitalization of the energy sector, the developed gamified module will feature a user interface (UI) tool that promotes healthy competition between users, primarily driven by changes in energy consumption behaviour. The monthly and overall leader boards will translate energy savings into an in-game virtual point-based system, reinforcing the intrinsic value of energy conservation. The gamified elements and mechanisms, such as missions, interactive tasks or challenges, instant feedback, achievements, and badges, will progressively guide users in understanding their energy consumption patterns and how they can be improved. Drawing from social engineering and educational perspectives, the pilot sites within the Smart2B project will maximize user interaction and engagement to motivate real behaviour change. By highlighting the design and development aspects of our gamified solution, we aim to provide more insights into the process that was followed to create an effective and impactful tool for promoting sustainable energy consumption practices among end-users.
Cities are privileged places in which the transition of society towards a sustainable future could be achieved. In this direction, individuals could have a preeminent impact in the attempt to meet such target.To engage individuals in the more responsible use of resources, more sustainable behavior and environmental identity within citizens has to be promoted. To support the transition of citizens behavioral patterns toward a more sustainable use of resources, several tools have been proposed, especially in the Human-Computer Interaction field. Such tools are rarely used more than once by users, thus usually they fail in promoting a stable engagement of the user, and their efficacy in fostering a change in her environmental behavior is limited. In this paper a methodology to design a gamifyied environment is presented, taking into consideration the possibility to integrate different parameters to promote user’s participation and to foster her perseverance in the engagement with the proposed serious game. A specific Sustainability Index is proposed, together with its calculation algorithm, in order to better communicate and compare the environmental performances of individuals, and ultimately to interact among each other through collaboration and competition in the framework of the proposed game itself.KeywordsSustainable behaviorGamificationEnvironmental Impact
With the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals and national commitments requiring effective implementation of evidence-based innovations, we are witnessing a growing number of related interventions in educational environments based on digitalization and gamification. In particular, serious games and playful activities are being used to empower children’s awareness and reflection on issues related to climate change and sustainability. In this work, we discuss such approaches through the lens of our own experience with an intervention targeting school environments. Our study is based on a playful web application that focuses on sustainability awareness and energy-related aspects, the GAIA Challenge, which was used in over 25 schools in 3 countries, resulting in 3762 registered users. We present a longitudinal study on the use of GAIA Challenge focusing on children’s engagement, rate of completion of the content on offer, and overall reaction by the school communities involved in large-scale trials, complemented with insights from surveys answered by 723 students and 32 educators. Our results showed that up to 20% of the children completed all content available in the Challenge, when gameplay sessions were combined with strong community competition activities. The children also reported increased awareness of related sustainability issues. Our findings demonstrate that a simple playful experience can yield good results within educational environments, by taking into consideration typical school constraints, integrating it to the daily activities of schools and placing it within their strategy.
Climate change is widely considered to be the most defining crisis of our time. To address the challenge, education and engagement are key factors to change the global response to climate change. Virtual Reality (VR) serious games can provide immersive experiences, which can also serve educational purposes. In this paper, we introduce Heated Escape, a novel VR escape room game that aims to educate players about the urgency of the climate crisis. Here, we present the general game concepts, including several puzzle games.
The deadlocks encountered in the agricultural sector of an increasing number of countries, over the last decades, concerning production cost, products’ distribution as well as “extra-financial” social and environmental burdens, have strengthened the idea that conventional agriculture has reached its limits. Integrated and organic farming are a common application method of sustainable agriculture, but in the case of Greece its results has been limited. In many cases, farmers have been reluctant to apply sustainable agriculture for an extended period of time. Usually, the transition towards SA is done gradually on only some parts of the farms and it’s difficult to have a clear image of the cost-efficiency between sustainable and conventional agriculture, making the farmer’s decision to fall back to conventional agriculture easier. The contribution of the social networks for sustainable development has been highlighted from many researchers; however, the level of their impact has been fluctuating. This article analyses the factors affecting the farmers’ decisions concerning their cultural practices, as well as the factors related to the attractiveness and the contribution of social networks towards sustainable development.KeywordsConventional agricultureSustainable developmentFarmers’ networksSocial attitudeGreece
Education for sustainable development supports the improvement of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors related to global challenges such as climate change, global warming and environmental degradation, among others. It is increasingly taking place through projects based on information and communication technologies. The effectiveness of the actions taken depends not only on the quality of the project activities or the sophistication of the innovative tools used. Social commitment also depends on the beliefs and moral judgements manifested by potential recipients of educational activities on environmental issues. This study aimed to identify the beliefs and moral judgements that may facilitate or hinder the implementation of educational activities based on information and communication technology, shaping pro-environmental attitudes and behavior among city dwellers. Based on the co-creation workshops conducted, five general categories emerged: responsibility, sense of empowerment, local leadership, real eco-approach, and eco-knowledge. The research findings may contribute to the design of educational activities dedicated to shaping the pro-environmental behavior of city dwellers.
Background
To overcome the high failure rate of gameful interventions, we need to better understand their design and evaluation strategies to build an evidence-base for best-practice approaches that bring about meaningful change. This systematic review asks: ‘What behavioural and technological design and evaluation theories and approaches are applied in games developed to bring about positive environmental outcomes?’.
Method
We reviewed 52 papers published between 2015 and 2020 that used gameful interventions to improve behaviour related to environmental outcomes. These papers were analysed to review the behavioural and technical design, and the assessment and evaluation approaches, employed by the intervention designers.
Results
We found that these publications report on simple aspects of the behavioural and technical design behind the intervention but fail to justify their design choices in terms of theory and evidence. Furthermore, variability across their evaluation approaches and outcomes exists.
Discussion
This review highlights several systemic flaws in the literature that limit our understanding of gameful interventions in the pro-environmental context. First, based on this review, we cannot be convinced that these interventions were designed according to best practice for intervention design or for technology development. Second, the justification for proposing a gameful intervention is not always clear. Finally, it is unclear whether these interventions are being evaluated based on best practice. Thus, it is not clear that we can draw confident conclusions about evidence-based outcomes of short-term engagement (in structural gamification interventions) or long-term behaviour change (in content gamification and serious game interventions).
The present study outlines the power of gamification to help reduce the attitudinal and engagement-related threats in a given non-game environment. Through this research paper, we proposed an extensive model of gamification, proposed on a series of theoretical models (ELM Model, Fogg Behaviour Model, ABC Model of Attitude, Octalysis Framework and MDE Framework) to be implied in organisations. Enabling participants to eliminate disengagement. Secondly, we have explored the “Intent”, “Mechanism”, and “Outcome” of organizations that have extensively applied gamification for restructuring various functional activities. Further, through this scholarly work, we have brought forward a novel concept of how gamification may help organisations achieve different dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and environmental).
This chapter aims to demonstrate how the Gamification Service Framework (GSF), an artifact that uses service design and game design resources to gamify services, can be used specifically as a design tool for improving transformative services. We discuss here its application in three cases: a recycling service aiming at environmental changes, a carpooling service focusing on social issues and an incident notification system aiming to promote a more empowering and participatory experience. In each, the authors demonstrate the four phases of the GSF process: selection, analysis, gamification and evaluation. At last, we discuss possible paths for the gamification of transformative services and possible improvements for the GSF.
Many climate-relevant behaviours are habitual. Habits are memory-based propensities to respond automatically to specific cues, acquired by repetition of behaviours in stable contexts. Socio-cognitive models are widely used to predict climate-relevant behaviours, but by positing behaviour as intentional, provide a poor account of habitual behaviours. While unsustainable habits are barriers to change, their very features (frequent, automatic and resistant to change) also make them desirable for sustainable behaviours to obtain. While informational approaches are generally ineffective for breaking habits, legislation, incentives, ‘nudges’, implementation intentions, competitions, and ‘moments of change’ (e.g., moving house) are more effective. Linking behaviour to identity and a stable context can ensure new habits to endure. Psychological theories and policy efficacy can be greatly improved by attention to habits.
These results come from a nationally representative survey of 1,001 American adults, aged 18 and older. The
completion rate was 53 percent. The sample was weighted to correspond with US Census Bureau parameters
for the United States. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percent for the full sample, with 95 percent confidence. The survey was designed by Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale University, and Edward Maibach and Connie Roser-‐Renouf of George Mason University, and was conducted December 24 through January 3 by Knowledge Networks, using an online research panel of American adults.
Little is known about the effect of message framing on conservation behavior over time. In a randomized controlled trial with residential households, we use advanced metering and information technologies to test how different messages about household energy use impact the dynamics of conservation behavior down to the appliance level. Our results, based on 374 million panel observations of kilowatt-hour (kWh) electricity consumption for 118 households over 9 months, show that differences in behavioral responses due to message framing become more significant over time. We find that a health-based frame, in which households consider the human health effects of their marginal electricity use, induced persistent energy savings behavior of 8-10% over 100 days; whereas a more traditional cost savings frame, drove sharp attenuation of treatment effects after 2 weeks with no significant savings versus control after 7 weeks. We discuss implications for the design of effective information campaigns to engage households in conservation behavior.
Pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors show substantial individual differences, and exploring their predictors can help reveal the origins of pro-environmental behavior. Basic personality traits may provide a partial explanation, but it is unclear which personality traits are reliably associated with pro-environmental behaviors. This article uses a specific type of environmental behavior, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to clarify which personality correlates are most robustly associated with behavior, and to test mediation of those effects through attitudes. A large (N = 345) sample of United States adults representative in age, gender, and ethnicity completed the 100-item HEXACO personality inventory, a novel self-report measure of behaviors that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and scales of environmental and political attitudes. Accounting for demographics, emissions-reducing behaviors were most strongly predicted by Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion, and these effects of personality were mediated by attitudes toward the natural environment. These observations broaden the understanding of the etiology of environmental attitudes and behavior.
Habit is thought to be conducive to health behavior maintenance, because habits prompt behavior with minimal cognitive resources. The precise role of habit in determining complex behavioral sequences, such as exercise, has been underresearched. It is possible that the habit process may initiate a behavioral sequence (instigation habit) or that, after instigation, movement through the sequence is automated (execution habit). We hypothesized that exercise instigation habit can be empirically distinguished from exercise execution habit and that instigation habit strength is most predictive of future exercise and reflective of longitudinal exercise behavior change. Further, we evaluated whether patterned exercise action-that is, engaging in the same exercise actions from session to session-can be distinct from exercise execution habit.
Healthy adults (N = 123) rated their exercise instigation and execution habit strengths, patterned exercise actions, and exercise frequency in baseline and 1-month follow-up surveys. Participants reported exercise engagement via electronic daily diaries for 1 month. Hypotheses were tested with regression analyses and repeated-measures analyses of variance.
Exercise instigation habit strength was the only unique predictor of exercise frequency. Frequency profiles (change from high to low or low to high, no change high, no change low) were associated with changes in instigation habit but not with execution habit or patterned exercise action.
Results suggest that the separable components of exercise sessions may be more or less automatic, and they point to the importance of developing instigation habit for establishing frequent exercise. (PsycINFO Database Record
(c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
Today, people use a variety of social and gameful (mobile) applications in order to motivate themselves and others to maintain difficult habits such as exercise, sustainable consumption and healthy eating. However, we have yet lacked understanding of how social influence affects willingness to maintain these difficult habits with the help of gamification services. In order to investigate this phenomenon, we measured how social influence predicts attitudes, use and further exercise in the context of gamification of exercise. Our results show that people indeed do “work out for likes”, or in other words, social influence, positive recognition and reciprocity have a positive impact on how much people are willing to exercise as well as their attitudes and willingness to use gamification services. Moreover, we found that the more friends a user has in the service, the larger the effects are. Furthermore, the findings of the empirical study further provide new understanding on the phenomenon of social influence in technology adoption/use continuance in general by showing, in addition to subjective norms, how getting recognized, receiving reciprocal benefits and network effects contribute to use continuance.
The Kukui Cup project investigates the use of "meaningful play" to facilitate energy aware-ness, conservation and behavioral change. Each Kukui Cup Challenge combines real world and online environments in an attempt to combine information technology, game mechanics, educational pedagogy, and incentives in a synergistic and engaging fashion. We challenge players to: (1) acquire more sophistication about energy concepts and (2) experiment with new behaviors ranging from micro (such as turning off the lights or installing a CFL) to macro (such as taking energy-related courses, joining environmental groups, and political/social advocacy.) To inform the design of the inaugural 2011 Kukui Cup, we relied heavily on prior collegiate en-ergy competitions, of which there have been over 150 in the past few years. Published accounts of these competitions indicate that they achieve dramatic reductions in energy usage (a median of 22%) and cost savings of tens of thousands of dollars. In our case, the data collected from the 2011 Kukui Cup was generally in agreement, with observed energy reductions of up to 16% when using data collection and analysis techniques typical to these competitions. However, our analysis process caused us to look more closely at the methods employed to produce outcome data for energy competitions, with unexpected results. We now believe that energy competitions make significant unwarranted assumptions about the data they collect and the way they analyze them, which calls into question both the accuracy of published results from this literature and their effectiveness as serious games. We believe a closer examination of these issues by the community can help improve the design not only of future energy challenges, but other similar forms of serious games for sustainability. In this paper, we describe the Kukui Cup, the design myths it uncovered, and the fixes we propose to improve future forms of meaningful play with respect to energy in particular and serious games in general.
Gamification has drawn the attention of academics, practitioners and business professionals in domains as diverse as education, information studies, human-computer interaction, and health. As yet, the term remains mired in diverse meanings and contradictory uses, while the concept faces division on its academic worth, underdeveloped theoretical foundations, and a dearth of standardized guidelines for application. Despite widespread commentary on its merits and shortcomings, little empirical work has sought to validate gamification as a meaningful concept and provide evidence of its effectiveness as a tool for motivating and engaging users in non-entertainment contexts. Moreover, no work to date has surveyed gamification as a field of study from a human-computer studies perspective. In this paper, we present a systematic survey on the use of gamification in published theoretical reviews and research papers involving interactive systems and human participants. We outline current theoretical understandings of gamification and draw comparisons to related approaches, including alternate reality games (ARGs), games with a purpose (GWAPs), and gameful design. We present a multidisciplinary review of gamification in action, focusing on empirical findings related to purpose and context, design of systems, approaches and techniques, and user impact. Findings from the survey show that a standard conceptualization of gamification is emerging against a growing backdrop of empirical participants-based research. However, definitional subjectivity, diverse or unstated theoretical foundations, incongruities among empirical findings, and inadequate experimental design remain matters of concern. We discuss how gamification may to be more usefully presented as a subset of a larger effort to improve the user experience of interactive systems through gameful design. We end by suggesting points of departure for continued empirical investigations of gamified practice and its effects.
The current patterns of production and consumption in the industrialized world are not sustainable. The goods and services we consume cause resource extractions, greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts that are already affecting the conditions of living on Earth. To support the transition toward sustainable consumption patterns, ICT applications that persuade consumers to change their behavior into a “green” direction have been developed in the field of Persuasive Technology (PT). Such persuasive systems, however, have been criticized for two reasons. First, they are often based on the assumption that information (e.g., information on individual energy consumption) causes behavior change, or a change in awareness and attitude that then changes behavior. Second, PT approaches assume that the designer of the system starts from objective criteria for “sustainable” behavior and is able to operationalize them in the context of the application.
In this chapter, we are exploring the potential of gamification to overcome the limitations of persuasive systems. Gamification, the process of using game elements in a non-game context, opens up a broader design space for ICT applications created to support sustainable consumption. In particular, a gamification-based approach may give the user more autonomy in selecting goals and relating individual action to social interaction. The idea of gamification may also help designers to view the user’s actions in a broader context and to recognize the relevance of different motivational aspects of social interaction, such as competition and cooperation. Based on this discussion we define basic requirements to be used as guidance in gamification-based motivation design for sustainable consumption.
Most people think climate change and sustainability are important problems, but too few global citizens engaged in high-greenhouse-gas-emitting behavior are engaged in enough mitigating behavior to stem the increasing flow of greenhouse gases and other environmental problems. Why is that? Structural barriers such as a climate-averse infrastructure are part of the answer, but psychological barriers also impede behavioral choices that would facilitate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental sustainability. Although many individuals are engaged in some ameliorative action, most could do more, but they are hindered by seven categories of psychological barriers, or "dragons of inaction": limited cognition about the problem, ideological worldviews that tend to preclude pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, comparisons with key other people, sunk costs and behavioral momentum, discredence toward experts and authorities, perceived risks of change, and positive but inadequate behavior change. Structural barriers must be removed wherever possible, but this is unlikely to be sufficient. Psychologists must work with other scientists, technical experts, and policymakers to help citizens overcome these psychological barriers.
Past behavior guides future responses through 2 processes. Well-practiced behaviors in constant contexts recur because the processing that initiates and controls their performance becomes automatic. Frequency of past behavior then reflects habit strength and has a direct effect on future performance. Alternately, when behaviors are not well learned or when they are performed in unstable or difficult contexts, conscious decision making is likely to be necessary to initiate and carry out the behavior. Under these conditions, past behavior (along with attitudes and subjective norms) may contribute to intentions, and behavior is guided by intentions. These relations between past behavior and future behavior are substantiated in a meta-analytic synthesis of prior research on behavior prediction and in a primary research investigation.
Interventions for voluntary proenvironmental behavior change usually target a limited number of behaviors and have difficulties in achieving durable change. The EcoTeam Program (ETP) is an intervention package that aims to overcome these flaws. Through a combination of information, feedback, and social interaction in a group—the EcoTeam—participants focus on the environmental consequences of their household behavior. The 3-year longitudinal study found that ETP participants (N= 150) changed half of the 38 household behaviors examined, with corresponding reductions on four physical measures of resource use. These improvements were maintained or enlarged 2 years after completion of the ETP, amounting to savings from 7% on water consumption to 32% on solid waste deposition. A detailed analysis of one behavior, means of transportation, suggests that change can be predicted from the interplay between behavioral intention and habitual performance before participation, and the degree of social influence experienced in the EcoTeam during participation.
Latane and Darley developed a five-stage model to understand why people do and do not help other people in emergency situations. We extend their five-stage model to explore why people do and do not take action against climate change. We identify the factors that make climate change difficult to notice and ambiguous as an emergency; we explore barriers to taking responsibility for action; and we discuss the issues of efficacy and costs versus benefits that make action unlikely. The resulting analysis is useful on two levels. For educators and policy makers, the model suggests the most efficacious approaches to galvanizing action among U.S. citizens. For social scientists, the model provides a valuable framework for integrating research from diverse areas of psychology and suggests fruitful avenues for future empirical research.
The purpose of this article is to illustrate the way in which the binding
communication paradigm (Joule, Girandola, Bernard, in press) can serve to promote
environmentally-friendly values and behavior. This paradigm stands at the crossroad of
research conducted in both the fields of communication and of commitment. We will be
describing 4 recent studies carried out in the south of France. The first study was conducted in
a school, the second in a town, the third study aimed at encouraging environmentally-friendly
behavior along the seacoast while the purpose of the fourth study was to promote recycling on
highway rest areas.
Numerous theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and environmental awareness, and displaying pro-environmental behavior. Although many hundreds of studies have been undertaken, no definitive explanation has yet been found. Our article describes a few of the most influential and commonly used analytical frameworks: early US linear progression models; altruism, empathy and prosocial behavior models; and finally, sociological models. All of the models we discuss (and many of the ones we do not such as economic models, psychological models that look at behavior in general, social marketing models and that have become known as deliberative and inclusionary processes or procedures (DIPS)) have some validity in certain circumstances. This indicates that the question of what shapes pro-environmental behavior is such a complex one that it cannot be visualized through one single framework or diagram. We then analyze the factors that have been found to have some influence, positive or negative, on pro-environmental behavior such as demographic factors, external factors (e.g. institutional, economic, social and cultural) and internal factors (e.g. motivation, pro-environmental knowledge, awareness, values, attitudes, emotion, locus of control, responsibilities and priorities). Although we point out that developing a model that tries to incorporate all factors might neither be feasible nor useful, we feel that it can help illuminate this complex field. Accordingly, we propose our own model based on the work of Fliegenschnee and Schelakovsky (1998) who were influenced by Fietkau and Kessel (1981).
Presents a social-psychological model of energy-use behavior that draws on behavioral and social research to explain influence processes and behavioral change related to energy conservation behavior. The model consists of 2 interacting sets of factors: psychological factors that refer to how information is processed by individual decision makers and positional factors that relate to characteristics of the decision makers' situations that support or constrain action. Suggestions for maximizing the effectiveness of informational appeals to conserve energy by convincing the consumer that a pay-off will result from the use of energy conserving devices are discussed. It is suggested that the adoption of a conservatory attitude is influenced by the vividness of the argument to conserve energy, the credibility of the source, the understanding and retention of the message, and the degree to which an individual is able and willing to install conservation devices in his/her home. Alternatives to informational appeals through mass media to encourage energy conservation are proposed. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter tries to strike a balance between "what is" and "what should be" the practice of measurement in social-personality research. The authors review the traditional reliability coefficients but urge the reader to think about facets of generalizability, such as time, items, and observers, and to explicitly adopt a generalizability framework. They criticize the indiscriminate use of alpha, pointing out its limitations and arguing for more complex interpretations of this ubiquitous index. They discuss a unified conception of construct validity, suggesting that systematic construct validation efforts are needed to develop a theoretical understanding of their methods. They note the voracious appetite the field has for "fast data" (easily obtained self-reports) and argue for a more diversified diet, calling for multimethod investigations as a rule, rather than the rare exception. They briefly illustrate the power of the no-longer new techniques of structural equation modeling to address measurement problems, calling for their routine use, at least in samples of large size. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent years have seen a rapid proliferation of mass-market consumer software that takes inspiration from video games. Usually summarized as "gamification", this trend connects to a sizeable body of existing concepts and research in human-computer interaction and game studies, such as serious games, pervasive games, alternate reality games, or playful design. However, it is not clear how "gamification" relates to these, whether it denotes a novel phenomenon, and how to define it. Thus, in this paper we investigate "gamification" and the historical origins of the term in relation to precursors and similar concepts. It is suggested that "gamified" applications provide insight into novel, gameful phenomena complementary to playful phenomena. Based on our research, we propose a definition of "gamification" as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts.
This article reviews and evaluates the effectiveness of interventions aiming to encourage households to reduce energy consumption. Thirty-eight studies performed within the field of (applied) social and environmental psychology are reviewed, and categorized as involving either antecedent strategies (i.e. commitment, goal setting, information, modeling) or consequence strategies (i.e. feedback, rewards). Particular attention is given to the following evaluation criteria: (1) to what extent did the intervention result in behavioral changes and/or reductions in energy use, (2) were underlying behavioral determinants examined (e.g. knowledge, attitudes), (3) to what extent could effects be attributed to the interventions and, (4) were effects maintained over longer periods of time? Interestingly, most studies focus on voluntary behavior change, by changing individual knowledge and/or perceptions rather than changing contextual factors (i.e. pay-off structure) which may determine households’ behavioral decisions. Interventions have been employed with varying degrees of success. Information tends to result in higher knowledge levels, but not necessarily in behavioral changes or energy savings. Rewards have effectively encouraged energy conservation, but with rather short-lived effects. Feedback has also proven its merits, in particular when given frequently. Some important issues cloud these conclusions, such as methodological problems. Also, little attention is given to actual environmental impact of energy savings. Often, an intervention's effectiveness is studied without examining underlying psychological determinants of energy use and energy savings. Also, it is not always clear whether effects were maintained over a longer period of time. Recommendations are given to further improve intervention planning and to enhance the effectiveness of interventions.
Environmental quality strongly depends on human behaviour patterns. We review the contribution and the potential of environmental psychology for understanding and promoting pro-environmental behaviour. A general framework is proposed, comprising: (1) identification of the behaviour to be changed, (2) examination of the main factors underlying this behaviour, (3) design and application of interventions to change behaviour to reduce environmental impact, and (4) evaluation of the effects of interventions. We discuss how environmental psychologists empirically studied these four topics, identify apparent shortcomings so far, and indicate major issues for future research.
An integrative model of change was applied to the study of 872 Ss (mean age 40 yrs) who were changing their smoking habits on their own. Ss represented the following 5 stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, action, maintenance, and relapse. 10 processes of change were expected to receive differential emphases during particular stages of change. Results indicate that Ss (a) used the fewest processes of change during precontemplation; (b) emphasized consciousness raising during the contemplation stage; (c) emphasized self-reevaluation in both contemplation and action stages; (d) emphasized self-liberation, a helping relationship, and reinforcement management during the action stage; and (e) used counterconditioning and stimulus control the most in both action and maintenance stages. Relapsers responded as a combination of contemplaters and people in action would. Results are discussed in terms of developing a model of self-change of smoking and enhancing a more integrative general model of change. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A meta-analysis of 128 studies examined the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. As predicted, engagement-contingent, completion-contingent, and performance-contingent rewards significantly undermined free-choice intrinsic motivation (d = -0.40, -0.36, and -0.28, respectively), as did all rewards, all tangible rewards, and all expected rewards. Engagement-contingent and completion-contingent rewards also significantly undermined self-reported interest (d = -0.15, and -0.17), as did all tangible rewards and all expected rewards. Positive feedback enhanced both free-choice behavior (d = 0.33) and self-reported interest (d = 0.31). Tangible rewards tended to be more detrimental for children than college students, and verbal rewards tended to be less enhancing for children than college students. The authors review 4 previous meta-analyses of this literature and detail how this study's methods, analyses, and results differed from the previous ones.
The present model outlines the mechanisms underlying habitual control of responding and the ways in which habits interface with goals. Habits emerge from the gradual learning of associations between responses and the features of performance contexts that have historically covaried with them (e.g., physical settings, preceding actions). Once a habit is formed, perception of contexts triggers the associated response without a mediating goal. Nonetheless, habits interface with goals. Constraining this interface, habit associations accrue slowly and do not shift appreciably with current goal states or infrequent counterhabitual responses. Given these constraints, goals can (a) direct habits by motivating repetition that leads to habit formation and by promoting exposure to cues that trigger habits, (b) be inferred from habits, and (c) interact with habits in ways that preserve the learned habit associations. Finally, the authors outline the implications of the model for habit change, especially for the self-regulation of habit cuing.
A meta-analysis of 41 studies examined the effect of choice on intrinsic motivation and related outcomes in a variety of settings with both child and adult samples. Results indicated that providing choice enhanced intrinsic motivation, effort, task performance, and perceived competence, among other outcomes. Moderator tests revealed the effect of choice on intrinsic motivation was stronger (a) for instructionally irrelevant choices compared to choices made between activities, versions of a task, rewards, and instructionally relevant options, (b) when 2 to 4 successive choices were given, (c) when rewards were not given after the choice manipulation, (d) when participants given choice were compared to the most controlling forms of control groups, (e) for children compared to adults, (f) for designs that yoked choice and control conditions compared to matched designs in which choice was reduced or designs in which nonyoked, nonmatched controls were used, and (g) when the experiment was conducted in a laboratory embedded in a natural setting. Implications for future research and applications to real-world settings are discussed.
Most programs to foster sustainable behavior continue to be based upon models of behavior change that psychological research has found to be limited. Although psychology has much to contribute to the design of effective programs to foster sustainable behavior, little attention has been paid to ensuring that psychological knowledge is accessible to those who design environmental programs. This article presents a process. community-based social marketing, that attempts to make psychological knowledge relevant and accessible to these individuals. Further, it provides two case studies in which program planners have utilized this approach to deliver their initiatives. Finally, it reflects on the obstacles that exist to incorporating psychological expertise into programs to promote sustainable behavior.
Citizens complete a survey the day before a major election; a change in the survey items' grammatical structure increases turnout by 11 percentage points. People answer a single question; their romantic relationships improve over several weeks. At-risk students complete a 1-hour reading-and-writing exercise; their grades rise and their health improves for the next 3 years. Each statement may sound outlandishmore science fiction than science. Yet each represents the results of a recent study in psychological science (respectively, Bryan, Walton, Rogers, & Dweck, 2011; Marigold, Holmes, & Ross, 2007, 2010; Walton & Cohen, 2011). These studies have shown, more than one might have thought, that specific psychological processes contribute to major social problems. These processes act as levers in complex systems that give rise to social problems. Precise interventions that alter themwhat I call wise interventionscan produce significant benefits and do so over time. What are wise interventions? How do they work? And how can they help solve social problems?
Energy information for consumers can be complex and uninteresting. Games offer a compelling new context for home energy information that may engage consumers and change behaviors. Based on research showing the effectiveness of game elements used in serious contexts, we built a professional quality social game about energy use in a virtual home. In a laboratory experiment, playing the game for 30 min resulted in significant increases in energy efficient behaviors (e.g., turning off room lights) after play ended. In a field test of the same game, smart meter data showed a significant decrease in electricity usage compared with 30-day periods before and after play. Taken together, these results demonstrate that energy information embedded in an entertaining commercial-grade game can produce significant changes in energy behavior.
Many consumers have monetary and environmental motivations for saving energy. Indeed, saving energy produces both monetary benefits, by reducing energy bills, and environmental benefits, by reducing carbon footprints. We examined how consumers’ willingness and reasons to enroll in energy-savings programs are affected by whether advertisements emphasize monetary benefits, environmental benefits, or both. From a normative perspective, having two noteworthy kinds of benefit should not decrease a program’s attractiveness. In contrast, psychological research suggests that adding external incentives to an intrinsically motivating task may backfire. To date, however, it remains unclear whether this is the case when both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are inherent to the task, as with energy savings, and whether removing explicit mention of extrinsic motivation will reduce its importance. We found that emphasizing a program’s monetary benefits reduced participants’ willingness to enroll. In addition, participants’ explanations about enrollment revealed less attention to environmental concerns when programs emphasized monetary savings, even when environmental savings were also emphasized. We found equal attention to monetary motivations in all conditions, revealing an asymmetric attention to monetary and environmental motives. These results also provide practical guidance regarding the positioning of energy-saving programs: emphasize intrinsic benefits; the extrinsic ones may speak for themselves.
Choice making represents the central element of self-determination, and efforts are being made across all service programs to promote choice making for consumers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Although choice making appears to be a relatively simple response for a consumer to perform (selecting one stimulus over another), it is a complex phenomenon involving several different components. This paper provides a selected review of the choice-making research literature, relative to employment service delivery. The paper examines the relationship of choice making to self-determination, how choice making can promote engagement and motivation for employees, and what barriers may exist that thwart meaningful choice making. Recommendations to support personnel and practitioners on practices to promote effective choice making are provided.
A survey revealed that researchers still seem to encounter difficulties to cope with outliers. Detecting outliers by determining an interval spanning over the mean plus/minus three standard deviations remains a common practice. However, since both the mean and the standard deviation are particularly sensitive to outliers, this method is problematic. We highlight the disadvantages of this method and present the median absolute deviation, an alternative and more robust measure of dispersion that is easy to implement. We also explain the procedures for calculating this indicator in SPSS and R software.
To provide practitioners with useful information about how to promote proenvironmental behavior (PEB), a meta-analysis was performed on 87 published reports containing 253 experimental treatments that measured an observed, not self-reported, behavioral outcome. Most studies combined multiple treatments, and this confounding precluded definitive conclusions about which individual treatments are most effective. Treatments that included cognitive dissonance, goal setting, social modeling, and prompts provided the overall largest effect sizes (Hedge’s g > 0.60). Further analyses indicated that different treatments have been more effective for certain behaviors. Although average effect sizes are based on small numbers of studies, effective combinations of treatments and behaviors are making it easy to recycle, setting goals for conserving gasoline, and modeling home energy conservation. The results also reveal several gaps in the literature that should guide further research, including both treatments and PEB that have not been tested.
