Activating Green Airport Actions: Promoting Eco-Friendly Choices for Sustainable Travel Through Commitment and Consistency

This research responds to challenges in promoting more sustainable responses among travelers. We posit that the commitment-and-consistency principle is a potent driver of more sustainable codes of conduct. Four experiments with more than 3,000 participants tested the impact of active (vs. passive or no) commitment on travelers’ likelihood to make sustainable choices at airports. A positive effect of active commitment emerged regarding travelers’ likelihood of making sustainable choices, with their consistency effort mediating this effect. Cultural belonging moderated this interplay, with active commitment being particularly powerful in individualistic (vs. collectivist) cultures. These findings contribute to commitment literature, offering actionable insights for airport managers, environmental NGOs, and policymakers alike. Specifically, our findings document that the cost-effective reliance on active commitment at commercial airport facilities boosts travelers’ general choice likelihood of sustainable options by roughly 50% to 75% compared to the existing (no commitment) status quo across settings and study paradigms.