TY - JOUR

T1 - On strategic ignorance of environmental harm and social norms

AU - Thunström, Linda

AU - van’t Veld, Klaas

AU - Shogren, Jason. F.

AU - Nordström, Leif Jonas

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Are people strategically ignorant of the negative externalities their activities cause the environment? Herein we examine if people avoid costless information on those externalities and use ignorance as an excuse to reduce pro-environmental behavior. We develop a theoretical framework in which people feel internal pressure (“guilt”) from causing harm to the environment (e.g., emitting carbon dioxide) as well as external pressure to conform to the social norm for pro-environmental behavior (e.g., offsetting carbon emissions). Our model predicts that people may benefit from avoiding information on their harm to the environment, and that they use ignorance as an excuse to engage in less pro-environmental behavior. It also predicts that the cost of ignorance increases if people can learn about the social norm from the information. We test the model predictions empirically using an experiment combined with a stated-preference survey involving a hypothetical long-distance flight and an option to buy offsets for the flight’s carbon footprint. More than half (53 percent) of the subjects choose to ignore information on the carbon footprint alone before deciding their offset purchase, but ignorance significantly decreases (to 29 percent) when the information additionally reveals the share of air travelers who buy carbon offsets. We find evidence that some people use ignorance as an excuse to reduce pro-environmental behavior—ignorance significantly decreases the probability of buying carbon offsets.

AB - Are people strategically ignorant of the negative externalities their activities cause the environment? Herein we examine if people avoid costless information on those externalities and use ignorance as an excuse to reduce pro-environmental behavior. We develop a theoretical framework in which people feel internal pressure (“guilt”) from causing harm to the environment (e.g., emitting carbon dioxide) as well as external pressure to conform to the social norm for pro-environmental behavior (e.g., offsetting carbon emissions). Our model predicts that people may benefit from avoiding information on their harm to the environment, and that they use ignorance as an excuse to engage in less pro-environmental behavior. It also predicts that the cost of ignorance increases if people can learn about the social norm from the information. We test the model predictions empirically using an experiment combined with a stated-preference survey involving a hypothetical long-distance flight and an option to buy offsets for the flight’s carbon footprint. More than half (53 percent) of the subjects choose to ignore information on the carbon footprint alone before deciding their offset purchase, but ignorance significantly decreases (to 29 percent) when the information additionally reveals the share of air travelers who buy carbon offsets. We find evidence that some people use ignorance as an excuse to reduce pro-environmental behavior—ignorance significantly decreases the probability of buying carbon offsets.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 124

SP - 195

EP - 214

JO - Revue d'Economie Politique

JF - Revue d'Economie Politique

SN - 0373-2630

IS - 2

ER -