{"title":"Contextual behavioral informed nudges to stimulate waste prevention and recycling. A framework and a research agenda","authors":"Amedeo Argentiero , Massimo Cesareo , Vincenzo Fasone , Giulio Pedrini , Giovambattista Presti","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108576","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Waste prevention and recycling have gained a focal position in the research agendas of scholars and policy makers. By drawing links between economics and psychology, Behavioral Economics (BE) offers a useful framework to stimulate benign individual decisions and choices in this field, by stressing the role of human factors in shaping them. Two distinct approaches can be identified, differing in how they conceptualize the putative independent variables that govern human behavior: 1) cognitive models and 2) behavioral-oriented models. The extant experimental literature, however, has not satisfactorily developed this twofold perspective in the analysis of possible nudging strategies to encourage waste prevention and recycling. Building on this research gap, the paper highlights the limitations of the current cognitive-based framework and explores the potential for extending the application of a contextual behavioral approach within this field of study. We propose a research agenda centered on integrating contextual behavioral tools into nudging interventions, identifying two main benefits arising from such an innovative approach: (i) a wider adoption of value-based actions, (ii) a mitigation of the decay of the nudging effect in the long term. These “contextual behavioral informed nudges” could be especially effective in situations involving a trade-off between health and environmental protection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51021,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Economics","volume":"233 ","pages":"Article 108576"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180092500059X","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Waste prevention and recycling have gained a focal position in the research agendas of scholars and policy makers. By drawing links between economics and psychology, Behavioral Economics (BE) offers a useful framework to stimulate benign individual decisions and choices in this field, by stressing the role of human factors in shaping them. Two distinct approaches can be identified, differing in how they conceptualize the putative independent variables that govern human behavior: 1) cognitive models and 2) behavioral-oriented models. The extant experimental literature, however, has not satisfactorily developed this twofold perspective in the analysis of possible nudging strategies to encourage waste prevention and recycling. Building on this research gap, the paper highlights the limitations of the current cognitive-based framework and explores the potential for extending the application of a contextual behavioral approach within this field of study. We propose a research agenda centered on integrating contextual behavioral tools into nudging interventions, identifying two main benefits arising from such an innovative approach: (i) a wider adoption of value-based actions, (ii) a mitigation of the decay of the nudging effect in the long term. These “contextual behavioral informed nudges” could be especially effective in situations involving a trade-off between health and environmental protection.
期刊介绍：
Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership.
Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.
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