Nudging the jetset to offset: voluntary carbon offsetting and the limits to nudging

Nudge-style interventions have often been successful in terms of changing behaviour, particularly for behaviours which are pro-self. Less research has been conducted into encouraging solely pro-social behaviours with nudges. This article examines the application of nudges to promote one pro-social behaviour: voluntary carbon offsetting for air travel. Testing nudges through randomised controlled trials and evaluating them using focus groups, nudges were found to be ineffective in promoting offsetting. Two explanations are proposed, addressing specific design problems of the nudges tested, which can in theory be overcome, and then more substantive barriers, which cannot. This article presents empirical evidence that nudges are unlikely to be effective when the target behaviour is not perceived as common, is not visible and has negative connotations, e.g. as carbon offsetting is often associated with other add-on extras for flights. Proposing a typology of automatic/reflexive systems of thinking, and pro-self/-social target behaviours, the article offers a conceptual contribution regarding the limits of effective nudging. Identifying behaviours beyond these limits means that in such cases, there is a need for industry-level budges - or behavioural economic-informed regulation, instead of individualised nudges. In regard to the expanding and carbon-intensive aviation industry, it is argued that such a need is particularly acute.