The Effect of Recycling versus Trashing on Consumption: Theory and Experimental Evidence
[ABSTRACT READ IN FULL from the publisher-deposited abstract at the Crossref item record; FULL TEXT NOT READ, the green open-access deposit would not load, and NO SAMPLE SIZE, DESIGN OR EFFECT SIZE IS ATTACHED TO THIS PAPER ANYWHERE IN THE FILE. Author order confirmed at Crossref: Sun first, Trudel second, both at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University] Sun, M., & Trudel, R. (2017). 'The Effect of Recycling versus Trashing on Consumption: Theory and Experimental Evidence.' Journal of Marketing Research, 54(2), 293-305. doi:10.1509/jmr.15.0574. The strongest version of the claim in the literature. In their words the article proposes 'a utilitarian model in which recycling could reduce consumers' negative emotions from wasting resources (i.e., taking more resources than what is being consumed) and increase consumers' positive emotions from disposing of consumed resources', provides evidence for each component of the utility function, and reports that 'Experiments with real disposal behavior support the model hypotheses.' The conclusion: 'the positive emotions associated with recycling can overpower the negative emotions associated with wasting. As a result, consumers could use a larger amount of resources when recycling is an option, and more strikingly, this amount could go beyond the point at which their marginal consumption utility becomes zero.' They also report a moderating effect of the financial, physical and mental costs of recycling. NOTE THE MECHANISM: it is affective, guilt removed and pride added, which is a cousin of moral licensing rather than the same thing, and it is strikingly close to what Dichter was hired to find in 1961. The article may draw that as a resemblance and never as a finding, because nobody has tested one against the other.
[ABSTRACT READ IN FULL from the publisher-deposited abstract at the Crossref item record; FULL TEXT NOT READ, the green open-access deposit would not load, and NO SAMPLE SIZE, DESIGN OR EFFECT SIZE IS ATTACHED TO THIS PAPER ANYWHERE IN THE FILE. Author order confirmed at Crossref: Sun first, Trudel second, both at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University] Sun, M., & Trudel, R. (2017). 'The Effect of Recycling versus Trashing on Consumption: Theory and Experimental Evidence.' Journal of Marketing Research, 54(2), 293-305. doi:10.1509/jmr.15.0574. The strongest version of the claim in the literature. In their words the article proposes 'a utilitarian model in which recycling could reduce consumers' negative emotions from wasting resources (i.e., taking more resources than what is being consumed) and increase consumers' positive emotions from disposing of consumed resources', provides evidence for each component of the utility function, and reports that 'Experiments with real disposal behavior support the model hypotheses.' The conclusion: 'the positive emotions associated with recycling can overpower the negative emotions associated with wasting. As a result, consumers could use a larger amount of resources when recycling is an option, and more strikingly, this amount could go beyond the point at which their marginal consumption utility becomes zero.' They also report a moderating effect of the financial, physical and mental costs of recycling. NOTE THE MECHANISM: it is affective, guilt removed and pride added, which is a cousin of moral licensing rather than the same thing, and it is strikingly close to what Dichter was hired to find in 1961. The article may draw that as a resemblance and never as a finding, because nobody has tested one against the other.
Written from the aBSTRACT READ IN FULL from the publisher-deposited abstract at the Crossref item record; FULL TEXT NOT READ, the green open-access deposit would not load, and NO SAMPLE SIZE, DESIGN OR EFFECT SIZE IS ATTACHED TO THIS PAPER ANYWHERE IN THE FILE. Author order confirmed at Crossref: Sun first, Trudel second, both at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Sun, M., & Trudel, R. (2017). The Effect of Recycling versus Trashing on Consumption: Theory and Experimental Evidence. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(2), 293-305. doi:10.1509/jmr.15.0574