The “Watching Eyes” effect on recycling behaviour

What unsustainable behavior needs to change:

Despite the positive impact recycling may have on our environment and existing legislation to foster it, over the last decade, the volume of municipal waste has surprisingly increased, with low recycling rates and lower quality of waste (accuracy/cleanliness). Although this can partially be due to inefficient waste collection systems; more needs to be addressed in order to improve an individual’s recycling and sorting behaviour. Like other sectors, recycling rates in the UK-higher education sector, record a declining recycling rate. This data is concerning especially considering that universities continue to produce high levels of waste per year. 

Given the role that universities play to educate the youth and to complement current socio-eco efforts to increase awareness, thus the impact of different waste recycling interventions on a university site was explored.

The Green Nudge:

A vast body of literature on pro-social behaviour suggests that the presence of “eye images” positively influences human cooperation, primarily driven by concerns about reputation rather than mere attention to written or verbal instructions. While informational campaigns have generally been effective in promoting recycling participation, individuals often rely on quick, intuitive decisions and are prone to errors.

In order to better understand the direct connection between subtle observability cues and the activation of motivation to adhere to social norms, researchers conducted a field experiment. They analysed recycling behaviour under two conditions: one utilising “eye images” alone and the other combining eye images with existing written instructions. Data from these treatments were compared with a control group that received no intervention.

The result: The findings indicate that the combination of eye images with written instructions reduced recycling errors, consequently decreasing waste sent to incinerators or landfills. Conversely, the presence of eye images alone had a detrimental effect on recycling rates, leading to increased errors. These results suggest that rather than relying solely on reputational effects, the presence of eye images enhances individuals‘ attention, thereby motivating them to correctly dispose of waste.