Positive cueing: Promoting sustainable consumer behavior by cueing common environmental behaviors as environmental

In the present article we test a social marketing tool, to induce pro-environmental consumer behavior. The tool intends to do so by changing a target’s self-perception from someone who usually does not engage in pro-environmental behavior to someone who usually engages in pro-environmental behavior. It is based on the assumption that people may fail to view themselves as environmentally conscious because they consider the common ecological behaviors they display as non-diagnostic for the self-perception at hand (Study 1). Cueing commonly performed ecological behaviors (positive cueing) may render these behaviors more diagnostic (Study 2). As a result, people cued with commonly performed ecological behaviors view themselves more environmentally conscious than people who are not cued or who are cued with non-commonly performed ecological behaviors (Study 3). In addition, positive cueing leads to an increase in proenvironmental choices and behavior (Study 4). Implications for effective social marketing campaigns are discussed.