Papers by Lars-olof Johansson
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 2003
An ongoing discussion concerns road-pricing schemes as measures to abate traffic congestion and a... more An ongoing discussion concerns road-pricing schemes as measures to abate traffic congestion and air pollution in metropolitan areas. If such measures are to be effective, road-pricing fees must be set sufficiently high However, municipalities are likely to have other goals besides reducing car use, such as upholding fairness among citizens and financial goals such as creating revenues. If conflicts prove to exist between different goals, road-pricing schemes are not likely to achieve the environmental goal. To investigate the degree to which these goal conflicts exist, members of the local governments in the three major metropolitan areas of Sweden responded to a survey questionnaire. In the questionnaire they rated a number of principles guiding the setting of road-pricing fees hypothesized to correspond to the three goals. The results showed that, for the political majority, the hypothesized goal conflicts existed in that no single goal was optimized. It is concluded that in parti...
To avoid concerns of manipulation, nudges should be transparent to the people affected by the int... more To avoid concerns of manipulation, nudges should be transparent to the people affected by the intervention. Whether increasing the transparency of a nudge also leads to more favorable perceptions of the nudge is however not certain, and may depend on the circumstances of the evaluation. Across three preregistered experiments (N = 1915), we study how increased transparency affects the perceived fairness of a default nudge, in joint vs. separate, and description- vs. experience-based evaluations. We find that transparency increases perceived fairness of the nudge in a joint comparison, when the relative benefits of transparency are easy to see. However, in a real choice-context, with nothing to compare against, transparency instead decreases perceived fairness. Efforts to make nudges more ethical may thus ironically make choice architects perceived as less ethical. Additionally, we find that the transparent default nudge still successfully affects behavior, that different default-sett...
Social Psychological and Personality Science
Approval of hierarchy and inequality in society indexed by social dominance orientation (SDO) ext... more Approval of hierarchy and inequality in society indexed by social dominance orientation (SDO) extends to support for human dominance over the natural world. We tested this negative association between SDO and environmentalism and the validity of the new Short Social Dominance Orientation Scale in two cross-cultural samples of students ( N = 4,163, k = 25) and the general population ( N = 1,237, k = 10). As expected, the higher people were on SDO, the less likely they were to engage in environmental citizenship actions, pro-environmental behaviors and to donate to an environmental organization. Multilevel moderation results showed that the SDO–environmentalism relation was stronger in societies with marked societal inequality, lack of societal development, and environmental standards. The results highlight the interplay between individual psychological orientations and social context, as well as the view of nature subscribed to by those high in SDO.
Nordic Psychology
In this research, we investigated how relative resource assessments relate to future expectations... more In this research, we investigated how relative resource assessments relate to future expectations. In previous research, resources are typically studied separately, and contextual influences and reference-point dependencies are often ignored. We addressed this in an online survey in which Icelanders (N = 611) assessed their economic, temporal, social, and emotional resources using four reference points (wants, others, past, future). We used exploratory factor analysis to reduce the four resources into three reliable factors: economic, temporal, and socio-emotional resources. Using hierarchical regression we found that assessments of socio-emotional and economic resources were related to future expectations, even after controlling for more objective resource markers, such as income and education. This relationship was strongest when past resources were used as the reference point for assessing current resources. We interpret these findings as suggesting that temporal comparisons to the past become more salient during times of instability, as Icelanders have recently gone through much economic and political turmoil. A psychological challenge for individuals recovering from economic collapse is to abstain from comparing current with past resource levels, as it elicits a loss experience. Overcoming a feeling that "it was better before" seems vital in re-establishing optimistic future expectations.
Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift
Rättvisefrågor har diskuterats sedan Platon och Sokrates. Men till skillnad från områdets normati... more Rättvisefrågor har diskuterats sedan Platon och Sokrates. Men till skillnad från områdets normativa framtoning i filosofiska kretsar, är socialpsykologerna intresserade av att studera människors subjektiva upplevelser av (o)rättvisa. Fokus ligger därför på förståelse och kartläggning av orsaker till och effekter av upplevd (o)rättvisa i olika sammanhang. I denna artikel ges en forskningsöversikt över området. Artikeln avslutas med en kort diskussion om vad den socialpsykologiska rättviseforskningen kan tillföra i fråga om förståelse av social problematik.
Critiques of nudging suggest that nudges infringe on decision makers’ autonomy. Yet, little empir... more Critiques of nudging suggest that nudges infringe on decision makers’ autonomy. Yet, little empirical research has explored whether people who are subjected to nudges agree. In three online between-group experiments (N = 2083), we subject participants to different choice architectures and measure their experiences of autonomy, choice-satisfaction, perceived threat to freedom of choice, and objection to the choice architecture. Participants who received an opt-out nudge made more prosocial choices but did not report more negative choice experiences compared to participants in opt-in default or active choice conditions. This was predominantly the case even when the presence of the nudge was made transparent to participants, and when choice stakes were increased. Our results suggest that defaults are less manipulative and autonomy-infringing than sometimes feared. Policy-makers should include measures of choice experiences when testing out new nudges.
Journal of Consumer Marketing
Purpose This paper aims to examine how social and moral salience influences the activation/deacti... more Purpose This paper aims to examine how social and moral salience influences the activation/deactivation of consumer motives and how this in turn affects costly pro-environmental consumer behavior. Design/methodology/approach In two experiments involving real purchases, it was tested whether social salience (private vs public choice) and moral salience (recall of neutral vs immoral action) lead to the activation of normative motives, and/or the deactivation of economic motives, and whether this facilitated the purchase of a costlier green product. Findings Participants were motivated by both economic and normative motives, and they actively made trade-offs between these motives as the choice environment changed. Green consumption was positively influenced by social and moral salience but only when both salience conditions were present simultaneously. However, salience did not lead to the activation of normative motives, as was expected, but to a deactivation of the motive to save mon...
Sustainability
Drawing on the emerging scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency (SAS) framework, this study explores... more Drawing on the emerging scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency (SAS) framework, this study explores how various consumer behaviors with potential environmental impacts relate to subjective evaluations of psychological resources such as economic resources, time, social networks, and emotional support. Assuming that individuals may “trade” the costs and efforts of green consumption, including the buying of eco-labeled goods, altered eating habits, and choice of transportation mode, against such psychological resources, we investigate the relationships between green consumer choices and resource evaluations using hierarchical regression analysis of data from an online panel survey. The results suggest that green consumer behaviors are positively related to subjectively evaluated resources such as feelings of economic sufficiency and other, more “relational” resources, including social networks and emotional support. Performing such behaviors may therefore lead to psychological gains. The...
Nature Sustainability
Primary contrast (c) Mental map 4-Positive component scores (d) Mental map 4-Negative component s... more Primary contrast (c) Mental map 4-Positive component scores (d) Mental map 4-Negative component scores (e) Mental map 3-Positive component scores (f) Mental map 3-Negative component scores (g) Mental map 2-Positive component scores (h) Mental map 2-Negative component scores
Journal of Business Research
Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2016
Purpose – The purpose of the present research is to explore the (multi-) dimensionality of the hi... more Purpose – The purpose of the present research is to explore the (multi-) dimensionality of the highly influential gain, hedonic and normative master goals. Despite being important drivers of consumer behavior, few attempts have been made to incorporate these goals into a single measure. Design/methodology/approach – Across three studies, the dimensionality of the gain, hedonic, and normative master goals are explored (Study 1), confirmed (Study 2) and validated (Study 3). Findings – A structure of five distinct sub-goals emerged, which were shown to be related to the original higher-order goals: thrift and safety (related to the gain goal), moral and social norms (related to the normative goal) and instant gratification (related to the hedonic goal). These five dimensions were shown to have satisfactory convergent, discriminant and construct validity. Research limitations/implications – The present research shows that consumer motivation is multi-dimensional, and that a distinction ...
Nature Climate Change, 2016
Environmental Policy and Governance, 2015
ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between political trust and the acceptability o... more ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between political trust and the acceptability of government regulations in the environmental field. We hypothesise that trust in particular authorities and perceptions of the quality of institutional arrangements are important predictors of rule acceptance, which we assume is important for the long-term legitimacy of the regulatory system. We explore the validity of this hypothesis using the case of homeowners with on-site sewage systems (OSSs), i.e. small-scale systems treating sewage from one or a few households that contribute to eutrophication and data was gathered through a questionnaire sent to randomly selected homeowners with OSS in Sweden. The results support propositions that political trust indeed is an important factor explaining homeowners' acceptability of governmental regulations. Political trust is in turn influenced by homeowners' perceptions of authorities being environmentally effective and impartial when enforcing rules, as well as by positive experiences of authority contacts. Policy makers and officials should thus use trust-building approaches and factors underpinning trust such as those investigated in this study to increase rule acceptance and, in the longer-run, pro-environmental behaviour. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2009
Reactions to third-party inequality were investigated in three experiments. In Experiment 1, 52 u... more Reactions to third-party inequality were investigated in three experiments. In Experiment 1, 52 undergraduates allocated money between themselves and two others. Preferences for equal and unequal distributions were also rated. The results show that people are averse to inequalities between themselves and others, and to inequalities between others. Post-experimental ratings indicate that egocentric equality, third-party equality, and max-min preferences are important motives. The findings were replicated in Experiment 2, where 74 undergraduates allocated compensation for a previously conducted task, and in Experiment 3, where 112 participants rated preferences. In these experiments random determination of rewards to third parties altered participants' behavior and preferences. The results indicated that random determination decreases the importance of all fairness motives while increasing the importance of monetary payoff. While people still care about economic equality under these conditions, contextual factors, such as perceived responsibility for unfair outcomes, seem to alter the impact of fairness.
Added t.p. with abstract statement inserted; text in Swedish. "ISSN 1101-718X"--T.p. ve... more Added t.p. with abstract statement inserted; text in Swedish. "ISSN 1101-718X"--T.p. verso. Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborg University, 2004. Includes bibliographical references.
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Papers by Lars-olof Johansson