You Are What You Choose: The Habits of Mind That Really Determine How We Make Decisions by Scott de Marchi & James T. Hamilton

Author:Scott de Marchi & James T. Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2009-10-12T14:00:00+00:00

RECYCLING

At this point it’s safe to say that everyone has heard about recycling. There have been a number of public information campaigns designed to increase participation in recycling programs, and if you aren’t recycling, it’s because you simply aren’t a fan of the environment, are lazy, or don’t believe that recycling helps. Fans, on the other hand, are happy to participate and will walk that extra distance to safely dispose of their soda can. It’s important to note, however, that it’s easier in some places to be this kind of fan because recycling is commonplace and the opportunity costs are so low. In many situations, the only thing that’s required is to throw your trash into a different-color bin.

To explain who becomes a fan of recycling, let’s start with a model that consists of demographics plus microtargeting. Part of the story of who recycles lies in demographics, but it’s not very much of the story. African Americans, gun owners, and churchgoers tend not to recycle, while people who live in urban areas do (most likely because the opportunity costs are lower—recycling bins are more common, recycling trucks arrive at the home more often, etc.). These effects, however, are all relatively slight.

Even after you take demographics into account, the TRAITS play a very large role in explaining who recycles. The benefits of recycling are often far in the future and spread across many people. Individually, no one receives a large payoff for recycling, so you have to care about other people to make it worthwhile. Each of these dimensions affects how people react to the decision to recycle. Accordingly, the Time trait matters a great deal, with the expected result that the more people value the future, the more they recycle. The other large effect is Altruism; the more likely you are to engage in charity work and feel a sense of obligation to others, the more you will recycle.

The meToo trait, interestingly, has a dual role in explaining recycling. One part of being other-regarding is that you care what others think of you, and this means having a nice house, a nice car, dressing well, and the like. None of this predisposes a person to take a lot of pleasure in recycling. The other part of the meToo trait is spending time with other people, and this does predispose a person to recycle. Polls consistently demonstrate, for example, that well over half of Americans support recycling, and this support is even stronger in urban areas. Ultimately, the effect of the meToo trait probably depends on who you know, and whether they’re recycling too.

The results of our horse race are displayed in the following graph. As is evident, TRAITS do very well once again, with demographics in second place. One striking outcome is that party identification does not matter. Recycling, despite stereotypes, is not the exclusive domain of liberals.

RECYCLING

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