Abstract
Although researchers have tried to explain why individuals are unwilling to sort waste, few studies focus on whether and how ego-depletion can inhibit an individual from separating waste. Here, we investigate the effectiveness of financial incentives in mitigating the impact of ego-depletion, a phenomenon triggered by demanding tasks that subsequently impair task performance. Experiment 1 revealed that when participants were involved in a task that expended substantial effort and energy in an initial task, they were more likely to discontinue a subsequent waste sorting task. Experiment 2, however, demonstrated a significant shift when financial incentives were introduced. Even in states of high depletion, the promise of financial rewards substantially increased participants’ perseverance in waste sorting. These findings not only reveal the influence of ego-depletion as a barrier to effective waste sorting but also highlight the practical potential for policymakers and environmental practitioners to motivate individuals through appropriate incentives. By addressing psychological factors (i.e., ego-depletion) and integrating incentives, this research contributes to more sustainable waste management practices.
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Notes
Participants completed all of the waste sorting items through an online platform (www.wjx.cn) which cannot record reaction time for each item. Thus, the effect of task difficulty could not be analyzed by using mean persistent time. Therefore, one factorial ANOVA analysis was conducted.
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Acknowledgements
This research was partly supported by the Scientific Foundation of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences [No. Y9CX391008, No. E2CX3315CX], the joint program of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [No. GJHZ2095], and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 72174194]. We appreciate the support of the Institute of Education Science of Heilongjiang University during the data collection process.
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Tang, J., Tian, X., Li, R. et al. Financial incentives overcome ego-depletion effect in the waste separation task. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05789-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05789-w