One thing leads to another? Pro-environmental behavioural spillover

Tackling climate change requires far-reaching changes to our lifestyles. However, behavioural interventions have often been piecemeal while less attention has been given to the impacts of change in one behaviour on other actions. Behavioural spillover is an enticing concept that targets behavioural interrelationships in ways that may catalyse broader lifestyle changes, spreading from one behaviour to another, bringing about greater impacts. Previous work on spillover has highlighted a range of psychological processes and mechanisms under which one behaviour can affect others in both positive and negative ways (or indeed not at all). This work has also highlighted the contingent nature of spillover and raised additional questions about the conditions in which spillover effects might be expected. In this chapter, we give a critical overview of the state of spillover research in respect of pro-environmental behaviours and indicate where the most promising avenues lie in promoting spillover across behaviours and contexts.