I am green : The Role of Effort and Image on green Identity Signaling

Identity signaling is a strong motivator for human behavior. We investigate whether we can nudge people to higher goals with regard to showering time reduction if they perceive a possibility to signal their green identity. In a fictional saving campaign by a utility company people saw a postcard displaying either a trendy or a non-mainstream greenie and the amount of effort (shower time reduction) that is associated with a certain reference saving goal. They chose their individual goal on the back side. We suggest that people who aim at signaling their identity choose higher goals when energy saving is associated with a non-mainstream greenie and medium effort in order to send clear identity signals to others. Our results confirm our hypotheses. Identity signaling therefore nudges people towards higher saving goals