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Exploring Intention & Reactance in Social Norm Interventions for Rail Business Travel

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  • Müller Adrian

    (University of St. Gallen Center for Aviation and Space Competence at the Institute for Systemic Management and Public Governance St. Gallen Switzerland)

  • Stauch Alexander

    (Meteomatics AG Unterstrasse 12 9000 St. Gallen Switzerland)

Abstract

Shifting continental business travel from carbon-intensive modes to rail is crucial for emissions reduction. Behavioral interventions are a way to achieve this, but a gap exists in understanding their efficacy for sustainable business travel behavior. Based on online experiments with frequent business travelers, we scrutinize the impact of descriptive social norm interventions on mode choice intention, considering potentially negative employee reactions. While revealing factors influencing reactance and intention, contrary to expectations derived from the theory of planned behavior, behavioral interventions literature, and psychological reactance theory, our social norm treatments did not significantly impact mode choice intention and resulted in low reactance levels. Despite these unexpected results indicating that our interventions did not yield the desired changes, our study underscores the challenges of influencing sustainable business travel behavior and emphasizes the need for tailored interventions and incentives in practice, suggesting avenues for further research.

Suggested Citation

  • Müller Adrian & Stauch Alexander, 2025. "Exploring Intention & Reactance in Social Norm Interventions for Rail Business Travel," Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 4-40.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:touwis:v:17:y:2025:i:1:p:4-40:n:1002
    DOI: 10.1515/tw-2024-0010
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