Enhanced “Green Nudging”: Tapping the Channels of Cultural Transmission

Abstract

This paper relates channels of cultural transmission to “green nudging”. It studies the effectiveness of this behavioral policy measure as to the promotion of sustainable consumption. The impact of “green nudges” is constrained for it is subject to decay and temporary behavioral adjustments. We argue that “enhanced green nudges” incorporating social learning biases that are based on humans’ evolved capacity for culture are more likely to entail persistent behavioral changes due to the inducement of preference learning. We consider biases based on norm psychology, conformity, self-similarity, and the influence of role models. Moreover, these biases’ effectiveness in cultural transmission hinges on whether the learning environment resembles the one in which they evolved during human phylogeny. Hence, “enhanced green nudges” are instruments to lastingly introduce environmentally begin consumption patterns. Several scenarios based on a model of cultural evolution illustrate our arguments.