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

在《世界经济论坛全球风险报告》（WEF, 2022）中，气候行动失败被列为世界面临的最严重威胁。旅游业对全球8%的人为温室气体排放量负有责任（Lenzen et al., 2018），为了应对气候变化，旅游业需要改变。旅游业为亲环境行为（PEB）提供了一个重要的研究对象，因为当消费者沉浸在一个新的环境中时，他们对新的信息更开放——就像人们到他们熟悉的环境之外的地方旅行一样。因此，研究人员可以通过使用行为干预来增加PEB，从而破坏与习惯性行为相关的线索（Verplanken et al., 2008）。此外，旅游可以被描述为一种享乐主义的环境，人们更有可能关注他们的享受，而不是考虑他们选择的后果，呈现出一种不太环保的倾向（Dolnicar, 2020; Miao & Wei, 2013）。尽管对可持续旅行行为的研究历史悠久，但对享乐环境下决策的研究很少（Miao & Wei, 2013），在旅游住宿的实地实验中测试的干预措施数量远远不够（Demeter et al., 2023）。此外，研究以孤立和横断面的方式关注有限范围的行为，而不是解决PEB的特殊复杂性。拟议的博士项目调查了轻推的发展和使用，以一种环保的，重要的是，持久的方式改变消费者的行为。利用溢出效应、道德许可和净化理论，我将解释为什么人们先前的道德行为有时会导致他们继续以同样的方式行事（溢出效应），而有时则使他们自由地采取与最初行为相反的行动（许可和净化）。最重要的是，目前还不清楚在什么条件下会发生什么时间效应。例如，如果消费者在预订阶段选择抵消其酒店住宿的碳足迹，那么他们在住宿期间是否更有可能或更少地参与其他PEB ？通过这个镜头，我将研究决策的时间和因果效应，有助于理解享乐背景下决策的时间性。与全球连锁酒店丽笙酒店集团的合作，使我能够在消费者旅程的不同阶段进行实地实验：旅行前，入住酒店期间，以及入住后消费者回到熟悉的环境中。使用这种方法，我将涵盖入住前、入住中和入住后的消费者行为，而不仅仅是关注旅行序列的一个阶段。这将使我能够研究消费者的行为是如何交织在一起的，以及在旅行序列的一个阶段的一个决定如何对稍后的时间点的行为产生积极或消极的影响。拟议的博士项目将为学术界和私营部门提供一个新颖的实用实验框架，解决如何在消费者旅程的不同阶段鼓励持久的PEB的研究差距。我开始为现有的研究贡献适用的、易于实施的、可推广的发现，以最大限度地提高博士研究的影响。因此，该项目的成果将对环境产生积极影响，因为创造持久的PEB将有助于企业降低温室气体排放。除了对环境的积极影响之外，这项研究还将有助于学术界更好地理解享乐主义环境下决策的暂时性。

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