The persuasive potential of digital nudging for eco-sustainable behaviour

This chapter discusses digital nudging to encourage eco-sustainable behaviour (ESB), which builds on information systems’ persuasive potential. To mobilise this persuasive potential, we investigate how gamified nudges enable the alignment of normative, hedonic, and gain goals to motivate ESB. We report on an experiment motivated by the importance of finding effective ways of increasing ESB and the relative inattention prior research has given to often competing goals which frame individuals’ cognitive and motivational processes. We find evidence that gamified emotional or competitive nudges keep the normative goal in the foreground and push often competing hedonic and gain goals into the background. We offer directions on how the persuasive potential offered by digital nudging can be mobilised to reduce the cognitive effort of keeping normative goals in the foreground and effectively trigger ESB, which is imperative for the future of our planet.