The spillover effect - where a pro-environmental behavior influences subsequent behaviors - remains a topic of debate. While previous research has primarily manipulated individual behaviors to assess their impact on subsequent actions, often yielding weak results, we took a different methodological approach by examining how spillover effects occur naturally in everyday life, providing a fresh perspective on the issue. We categorized spillovers into four types: positive consistency (pro-environmental followed by pro-environmental), licensing (pro-environmental followed by environmentally harmful), negative consistency (harmful followed by harmful), and compensation (harmful followed by pro-environmental).
Using experience sampling, 191 participants reported environmentally relevant behaviors five times daily for five days, resulting in 2,982 behaviors and 528 sequential behaviors. Participants reported more consistent behaviors (positive and negative) than balancing behaviors (licensing and compensating). Sequential behaviors occurred more often within specific categories (e.g., transportation, food) than across categories. Positive consistency and compensation were associated with heightened positive emotions, whereas negative consistency and licensing were correlated with negative emotions.
Our study shows that spillover effects occur naturally in everyday life, manifesting themselves in different forms and frequencies. However, not all reported behaviors were related to antecedent behaviors. These findings provide new insights into the natural occurrence of spillover effects and highlight the need for future research that examines how these findings can be used to design interventions that promote pro-environmental spillovers in real-world contexts.