IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nathum/v4y2020i2d10.1038_s41562-019-0795-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What we can learn from five naturalistic field experiments that failed to shift commuter behaviour

Author

Listed:
  • Ariella S. Kristal

    (Harvard Business School)

  • Ashley V. Whillans

    (Harvard Business School)

Abstract

Across five field experiments with employees of a large organization (n = 68,915), we examined whether standard behavioural interventions (‘nudges’) successfully reduced single-occupancy vehicle commutes. In Studies 1 and 2, we sent letters and emails with nudges designed to increase carpooling. These interventions failed to increase carpool sign-up or usage. In Studies 3a and 4, we examined the efficacy of other well-established behavioural interventions: non-cash incentives and personalized travel plans. Again, we found no positive effect of these interventions. Across studies, effect sizes ranged from Cohen’s d = −0.01 to d = 0.05. Equivalence testing, using study-specific smallest effect sizes of interest, revealed that the treatment effects observed in four out of five of our experiments were statistically equivalent to zero (P

Suggested Citation

  • Ariella S. Kristal & Ashley V. Whillans, 2020. "What we can learn from five naturalistic field experiments that failed to shift commuter behaviour," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(2), pages 169-176, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:4:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1038_s41562-019-0795-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0795-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0795-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41562-019-0795-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bao, Helen X.H. & Robinson, Guy M., 2022. "Behavioural land use policy studies: Past, present, and future," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Shusaku Sasaki & Hirofumi Kurokawa & Fumio Ohtake, 2021. "Effective but fragile? Responses to repeated nudge-based messages for preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 371-408, July.
    3. Brough, Rebecca & Freedman, Matthew & Phillips, David C., 2022. "Experimental evidence on the effects of means-tested public transportation subsidies on travel behavior," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    4. Gershoni, Naomi & Stryjan, Miri, 2023. "Do Deadlines Affect Project Completion? Experimental Evidence from Israeli Vocational Colleges," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 359-375.
    5. Leonidas G. Anthopoulos & Dimitrios N. Tzimos, 2021. "Carpooling Platforms as Smart City Projects: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-29, September.
    6. Amelie Griesoph & Stefan Hoffmann & Christine Merk & Katrin Rehdanz & Ulrich Schmidt, 2021. "Guess What …?—How Guessed Norms Nudge Climate-Friendly Food Choices in Real-Life Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, August.
    7. Falco, Paolo & Zaccagni, Sarah, 2020. "Promoting social distancing in a pandemic: Beyond the good intentions," OSF Preprints a2nys, Center for Open Science.
    8. Johannes Gessner & Wolfgang Habla & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2023. "Can Social Comparisons and Moral Appeals Induce a Modal Shift Towards Low-Emission Transport Modes?," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_451, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    9. Hurwitz, Abigail & Mitchell, Olivia S. & Sade, Orly, 2022. "Testing methods to enhance longevity awareness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 466-475.
    10. Gessner, Johannes & Habla, Wolfgang & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2023. "Can social comparisons and moral appeals increase public transport ridership and decrease car use?," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-003, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Andor, Mark Andreas & Dehos, Fabian & Gillingham, Kenneth & Hansteen, Sven & Tomberg, Lukas, 2023. "Public transport pricing: An evaluation of the 9-Euro Ticket and an alternative policy proposal," Ruhr Economic Papers 1045, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    12. Griesoph, Amelie & Hoffmann, Stefan & Merk, Christine & Rehdanz, Katrin & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2021. "Guess What …?—How Guessed Norms Nudge Climate-Friendly Food Choices in Real-Life Settings," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 240210, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    13. Narayanan, Santhanakrishnan & Antoniou, Constantinos, 2023. "Shared mobility services towards Mobility as a Service (MaaS): What, who and when?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Leonie Decrinis & Wolfgang Freibichler & Micha Kaiser & Cass R. Sunstein & Lucia A. Reisch, 2023. "Sustainable behaviour at work: How message framing encourages employees to choose electric vehicles," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5650-5668, December.
    15. Piras, Francesco & Sottile, Eleonora & Tuveri, Giovanni & Meloni, Italo, 2022. "Does the joint implementation of hard and soft transportation policies lead to travel behavior change? An experimental analysis," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    16. Johannes Gessner & Wolfgang Habla & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2023. "Can Social Comparisons and Moral Appeals Induce a Modal Shift Towards Low-Emission Transport Modes?," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_451v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    17. Coby Morvinski & Silvia Saccardo & On Amir, 2023. "Mis-Nudging Morality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(1), pages 464-474, January.
    18. Lassi Ahlvik & Anna Sahari, 2023. "Promoting active transport through health information: evidence from a randomized controlled trial," Working Papers 16, Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:4:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1038_s41562-019-0795-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.