Going the extra green mile: When others' actions fall short of their responsibility

The present research examined whether the environmental responsibility and actions attributed to large scale organizations, such as the government, can influence people's environmental efforts. In particular, we examined whether people increase or decrease their willingness to enact energy conservation behaviors (ECB) when there is a shortfall between others' actions and their responsibility. In Studies 1 and 2 we found that willingness to enact ECB was positively correlated with judgements about each of the organizations' eco-responsibility but not their eco-actions. Interestingly, each of the organizations' actions were perceived as falling short of their responsibility and this shortfall was positively associated with willingness to enact ECB. In Study 3, we found that manipulating respondents perceptions of government shortfall increased participants' willingness to enact ECB. Overall our findings provide support for social compensation theory as when others actions fall short of their responsibility people are prepared to “go the extra green mile”.