The promise of asymmetric interventions for addressing risks to environmental systems

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that people the world over are becoming increasingly concerned about the health of environmental systems. However, research has also shown that many people still fail to make decisions that will result in even small behavioral changes that, when aggregated across society, might lead to positive environmental consequences. This paper reports the results of three naturalistic experiments—each involving asymmetric interventions and set in the context of real-world decisions—aimed at helping people to make decisions at the individual level that, when scaled up, can help to address risks to environmental systems.