A little thanks misses the mark : does communicating gratitude affect green travel choices?

Kühne, Swen J.; Reijnen, Ester; Bremermann-Reiser, Sabine Maja

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Peer review (abstract)
Title:	A little thanks misses the mark : does communicating gratitude affect green travel choices?
Authors:	Kühne, Swen J. Reijnen, Ester Bremermann-Reiser, Sabine Maja
et. al:	No
Conference details:	International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023
Issue Date:	Jun-2023
Language:	English
Subjects:	Gift; Greener mobility; Sustainability strategy
Subject (DDC):	150: Psychology 658.408: Security management, environmental management
Abstract:	Sustainability strategies have become part of many organisations. However, what kind of communication of these strategies to employees is most likely to lead them to choose greener mobility? Regarding prosocial behavior, a simple expression of gratitude to a person has been shown to make that person more likely to help others, donate or responding to a survey. Does incorporating gratitude into corporate sustainability communications also have a positive impact on employees' mobility decisions? To test this, in an online study, 739 participants (65% female, Mage = 25.8) were randomly assigned to one of three communication conditions. The organisation communicated either the sustainability strategy (control group) alone, with a thank you for the employees future green decisions (thank you condition), or with a thank you and the presentation of a gift (gift condition). Participants were then presented with both a flight and a train offer (oder counterbalanced) for their next business trip, and they had to indicate their preference for the train (in %). While communication conditions had no differential effect on the preference to use the train (p = .19), order did (p <.01); the train was prefered more when offered at the top. This effect became even more pronounced among participants with a high travel-related carbon footprint (p <.05). Overall, results suggest that organizations do not benefit from including gratitude in their sustainability communications to promote greener mobility, but do benefit when the organizational unit responsible for recommending travel options places the train offer first in an email.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/28965
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	Applied Psychology
Organisational Unit:	Psychological Institute (PI)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Angewandte Psychologie

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Kühne, S. J., Reijnen, E., & Bremermann-Reiser, S. M. (2023, June). A little thanks misses the mark : does communicating gratitude affect green travel choices? International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023.

Kühne, S.J., Reijnen, E. and Bremermann-Reiser, S.M. (2023) ‘A little thanks misses the mark : does communicating gratitude affect green travel choices?’, in International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023.

S. J. Kühne, E. Reijnen, and S. M. Bremermann-Reiser, “A little thanks misses the mark : does communicating gratitude affect green travel choices?,” in International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023, Jun. 2023.

KÜHNE, Swen J., Ester REIJNEN und Sabine Maja BREMERMANN-REISER, 2023. A little thanks misses the mark : does communicating gratitude affect green travel choices? In: International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023. Conference presentation. Juni 2023

Kühne, Swen J., Ester Reijnen, and Sabine Maja Bremermann-Reiser. 2023. “A Little Thanks Misses the Mark : Does Communicating Gratitude Affect Green Travel Choices?” Conference presentation. In International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023.

Kühne, Swen J., et al. “A Little Thanks Misses the Mark : Does Communicating Gratitude Affect Green Travel Choices?” International Conference of Environmental Psychology (ICEP), Aarhus, Denmark, 20-23 June 2023, 2023.