May 2024 – December 2025
The expectation that communicating environmentally friendly behavior on social media will lead to an improvement in social status can be explained, among other things, by the fact that this behavior reflects an altruistic attitude and thus serves as a sign that the person in question cares about the well-being of others or society and is willing to make certain sacrifices (e.g., longer travel time, reduced comfort). This message, in turn, can be advantageous in the competition for social status (Griskevicius et al., 2010; Line et al., 2018). This study investigates whether posting about a sustainable mode of transportation (train) on Instagram actually leads to a higher social return for the poster than posting about a non-sustainable mode of transportation (flight) or a neutral post.
To this end, an online experiment (between-subjects design) involving three groups was conducted in December 2024. The sample was representative of the German-speaking population aged 18 to 74 living in private households (quota sample; n = 1,000, randomly assigned to the three groups).
The goal of the project is to determine whether people who choose more sustainable modes of transportation (train versus plane) for their vacations and share this on social media experience greater social recognition (social return). This is intended to provide insights into appropriate social nudges for promoting more sustainable travel decisions.
The results show that people who post on Instagram about a vacation trip they took by train are viewed significantly more positively than those who flew and those who did not specify their mode of transportation. Although the effect is considered small, the results suggest that status competition can be used to promote environmentally friendly transportation choices.
Prof. Dr. Florian Kock, Copenhagen Business School
