Selling brotherhood like soap: influencing everyday disposal decisions

Sorting garbage during disposal is effortful for the individual and the household, but beneficial to society in the long run. This makes recycling a typical example of a social dilemma, and a prime target for social marketing interventions. Household disposal acts are relatively mindless routine behaviors embedded in daily housekeeping tasks of a well-managed household. Higher-order goals to support compliance with recycling guidelines are readily available for reflection, but so are justifications for defection. We argue that the current theoretical basis for social marketing in social dilemmas is not well suited for this class of prosocial behaviors. Social marketing may benefit from strategies that make values and higher order goals accessible as a basis for decision making without promoting further elaborative thought.status: publishe