Social interventions are a popular tool to stimulate pro-social (including climate-friendly) behavior. Their use is, however, limited when the descriptive norm is low, i.e. when a desirable behavior is only practiced by a minority within the respective reference group. We tackle this issue by testing new strategies for social interventions, with an especially sophisticated target group. We implement a field experiment at two subsequent conferences in environmental economics, with which we examine the conference participants’ proclivity to offset carbon emissions. For the two treatment conditions that we introduce, we document an average null effect. Yet, for one condition, we find that the intervention can be effective when the targeted individuals feel socially close to the referenced peer group. Further, we find suggestive evidence that the effectiveness of such interventions increases as individuals are exposed to repeated treatment, but with decreasing marginal returns.

中文翻译：

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描述性标准较低时的推动：来自碳抵消现场实验的证据

社会干预是刺激亲社会（包括气候友好）行为的流行工具。然而，当描述性标准较低时，即当只有相应参考组中的少数人实行理想行为时，它们的使用就会受到限制。我们通过针对特别复杂的目标群体测试新的社会干预策略来解决这个问题。我们在随后的两次环境经济学会议上进行了现场实验，通过该实验我们检查了会议参与者抵消碳排放的倾向。对于我们引入的两种治疗条件，我们记录了平均零效应。然而，对于一种情况，我们发现，当目标个人感觉与所提及的同龄群体在社交上接近时，干预措施可能会有效。此外，我们发现提示性证据表明，随着个体接受重复治疗，此类干预措施的有效性会增加，但边际回报会减少。