Nudges to Increase the Effectiveness of Environmental Education

We ran randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of our environmental education class and the impact of the nudge and boost on students’ attitudes and behaviors toward environmental issues. We found that our environmental education class significantly improves the students’ basic knowledge of the environment and concerns about plastic waste. Although there is no evidence that nudges and boosts amplify the effect of environmental education on basic knowledge of the environment, nudges are successful in making students who received environmental education more concerned about plastic waste. Our results also show that nudges and boosts can change students’ pro-environmental behaviors. Students who were assigned to treatment groups with nudges or boosts are more likely to refuse free wet wipes provided at convenience stores. These results indicate that our interventions change students’ pro-environmental behaviors only if the cost of changing their behaviors is low.