Do not disturb? How social norms influence green behavior among hotel guests

Do not disturb? How social norms influence green behavior among hotel guests

Different messaging techniques on the reuse of towels in hotels are found to have a significant impact on guest behavior — and can save significant amounts of energy and water. This low-cost method may be of interest to businesses, who can save money on utility costs while furthering their environmental reputation as well.

Original Paper:
Terrier, L., & Marfaing, B. (2015). Using social norms and commitment to promote pro-environmental behavior among hotel guests. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 44, 1, 10-15. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.09.001

With the looming threat of climate change, a range of businesses — including the tourism and hospitality industry — have gradually followed the trend of environmental awareness, seeking cost-effective means of reducing their environmental footprint. For hotels, encouraging guests to reuse their towels is a particularly appealing strategy, as it allows hotels to save substantially on labor, water, and electricity costs in the name of being green. One study estimated that a mere 10-percent reduction in energy would lead to $750 million in annual savings for the U.S. hotel industry. No wonder, then, that it is now commonplace to see signs in hotel bathrooms, providing guests with the option of reusing their towels. But which signs are the most effective at promoting towel reuse?
 
To answer this question, two researchers conducted a study to examine the effect of "commitment" and "normative" strategies as a means of promoting towel reuse in hotels. In the field of behavioral psychology, commitment refers to "a pledging of the individual to behavioral acts;" when people agree to simpler tasks, they tend to feel the need to be consistent with their commitments, and may thus be motivated to agree to other tasks. Normative behavior, on the other hand, refers to people's desire to "fit in with the crowd." When individuals are informed that the majority of a group to which they  belong are committed to a particular action, they may be motivated to adhere to the same action, as well.
 
To test the "commitment" and "normative" strategies in a hotel context, Lohyd Terrier, from the Lausanne Hospitality School at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland, and Benedicte Marfaing, from the University of Fribourg, created four scenarios: No commitment nor normative; only commitment; only normative; and both commitment and normative. In the commitment strategy scenario, hotel guests were asked to hang plastic cards on their door as a demonstration of their support and commitment. In the normative strategy scenario, the message provided to guests included a statistic claiming that more than 75 percent of guests reused their towels. 
 
What did the researchers find? After conducting 803 trials (approximately evenly split amongst the four scenarios), Terrier and Marfaing discovered that the number of reused towels significantly increased — by 18 to 22 percent — when using any combination of the "commitment" or "normative" strategy. Interestingly enough, they further discovered that using a combined strategy did not result in statistically significant increases in towel reuse compared to either strategy used alone.
 
The value of this study lies in its application of psychological traits in an environmental context. Although the study was relatively small in scale, the experiment demonstrates how significant changes in behavior (and consequent environmental impact) can occur from marginal changes in messaging, and how this phenomenon can be harnessed for positive environmental change. The study, applied to other aspects of the hotel industry (like showering times or appliance use) could lead to further savings in water and energy costs. Applications outside of the service industry could prove substantial as well. If policymakers and practitioners are able to consistently utilize these strategies in the fight against climate change, then perhaps it may not be time to throw in the towel after all.

You might like these articles that share the same topics