Group identities can undermine social tipping after intervention.


Journal

Nature human behaviour
ISSN: 2397-3374
Titre abrégé: Nat Hum Behav
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101697750

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
12 2022
Historique:
received: 09 07 2021
accepted: 29 07 2022
pubmed: 23 9 2022
medline: 20 12 2022
entrez: 22 9 2022
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Social tipping can accelerate behaviour change consistent with policy objectives in diverse domains from social justice to climate change. Hypothetically, however, group identities might undermine tipping in ways that policymakers do not anticipate. To examine this, we implemented an experiment around the 2020 US federal elections. The participants faced consistent incentives to coordinate their choices. Once the participants had established a coordination norm, an intervention created pressure to tip to a new norm. Our control treatment used neutral labels for choices. Our identity treatment used partisan political images. This simple pay-off-irrelevant relabelling generated extreme differences. The control groups developed norms slowly before intervention but transitioned to new norms rapidly after intervention. The identity groups developed norms rapidly before intervention but persisted in a state of costly disagreement after intervention. Tipping was powerful but unreliable. It supported striking cultural changes when choice and identity were unlinked, but even a trivial link destroyed tipping entirely.

Identifiants

pubmed: 36138223
doi: 10.1038/s41562-022-01440-5
pii: 10.1038/s41562-022-01440-5
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

1669-1679

Informations de copyright

© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

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Auteurs

Sönke Ehret (S)

Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. sonkeklaus.ehret@unil.ch.

Sara M Constantino (SM)

School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. sara.constantino@gmail.com.
School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA. sara.constantino@gmail.com.
Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA. sara.constantino@gmail.com.

Elke U Weber (EU)

School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Charles Efferson (C)

Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. charles.efferson@unil.ch.

Sonja Vogt (S)

Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. sonja.vogt@unil.ch.
Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. sonja.vogt@unil.ch.
Nuffield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. sonja.vogt@unil.ch.

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