Small Steps, Big Impact: Increasing Perceived Effectiveness of Sustainable Behavior by Demonstrating Its Cumulative Impact Over Time

Adopting a sustainable lifestyle is challenging because people often perceive their pro-environmental actions as ineffective and unimpactful. To reduce disposable cups use for “to-go” drinks, we presented information that makes the effectiveness of one’s efforts visible. In three experiments, we demonstrated that presenting explicated effectiveness information (i.e., figures showing the number of disposable cups that could be saved over time by using a reusable cup instead) as accumulated (vs. daily) increased the perceived effectiveness of one’s action, which, in turn, was associated with enhanced intention to use a reusable cup. This effect was obtained when the accumulated information showed potential high (i.e., 20 cups saved in a month, Experiments 1 and 2), but not low (i.e., 48 cups saved in a year, Experiment 3) impact. Our findings underscore the importance of presenting information that makes the effectiveness of one’s efforts visible to promote sustainable consumption.