Using Social Influence For Some Good

Consider the following three signs posted in hotel bathrooms (from a study by UCLA Professor Noah Goldstein and his co-authors):

HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT

The environment deserves our respect.  You can show your respect for nature and help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay. 

JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT

Almost 75% of the guests who are asked to participate in our new resource savings program do help by using their towels more than once.  You can join your fellow guests in this program to help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay.

JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT

In a study conducted in Fall 2003, 75% of the guests who stayed in this room (#xxx) participated in your new resource savings program by using towels more than once.  You can join your fellow guests in this program to help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay.

Does the hotel guests' behavior change as a result of these changes in the language on these bathroom signs?  It sure does!   With the first sign posted above, 35% of guests chose to reuse their towels.   With the second sign, the participation increased to 44%.  Finally, the third sign increased reuse rates to 49.3%.   

What's going on here?   We are affected by the behavior of others - no surprise there.  We are more affected by "people like us" than by others with whom we do not feel a common bond.  Francesca Gino explains the research on this topic in her new book (Sidetracked: How our decisions get derailed, and how we can stick to the plan).  What's amazing about the example above is that the common bond created in the third experimental condition is simply that others stayed in the same hotel  room as the individual reading the sign about re-using towels.   The others are complete strangers!  Yet, the fact that they stayed in the same room creates just enough of a bond to nudge up the rate at which guests reuse towels.   Common bonds and social influence, of course, can also affect us in negative ways.   In this case, though, the researchers showed how we can use influence processes for some good.