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The negative footprint illusion is exacerbated by the numerosity of environment-friendly additions : unveiling the underpinning mechanisms

Andersson, Hanna LU orcid ; Holmgren, Mattias ; Sörqvist, Patrik ; Threadgold, Emma ; Beaman, C. Philip ; Ball, Linden J. and Marsh, John E. (2024) In Journal of Cognitive Psychology 36(2). p.295-307
Abstract
The addition of environmentally friendly items to conventional items sometimes leads people to believe that the carbon footprint of the entire set decreases rather than increases. This negative footprint illusion is supposedly underpinned by an averaging bias: people base environmental impact estimates not on the total impact of items but on their average. Here, we found that the illusion’s magnitude increased with the addition of a greater number of “green” items when the number of conventional items remained constant (Studies 1 and 2), supporting the averaging-bias account. We challenged this account by testing what happens when the number of items in the conventional and “green” categories vary while holding the ratio between the two... (More)
The addition of environmentally friendly items to conventional items sometimes leads people to believe that the carbon footprint of the entire set decreases rather than increases. This negative footprint illusion is supposedly underpinned by an averaging bias: people base environmental impact estimates not on the total impact of items but on their average. Here, we found that the illusion’s magnitude increased with the addition of a greater number of “green” items when the number of conventional items remained constant (Studies 1 and 2), supporting the averaging-bias account. We challenged this account by testing what happens when the number of items in the conventional and “green” categories vary while holding the ratio between the two categories constant (Study 3). At odds with the averaging-bias account, the magnitude of the illusion increased as the category size increased, revealing a category-size bias, and raising questions about the interplay between these biases in the illusion.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
bias, environmental impact, Negative footprint illusion
in
Journal of Cognitive Psychology
volume
36
issue
2
pages
13 pages
publisher
Psychology Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85186398964
ISSN
2044-5911
DOI
10.1080/20445911.2024.2313568
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
id
26a9d091-81b0-4bb2-8cc4-732685b2d0a5
date added to LUP
2024-11-25 11:56:58
date last changed
2025-07-08 06:20:27
@article{26a9d091-81b0-4bb2-8cc4-732685b2d0a5,
  abstract     = {{The addition of environmentally friendly items to conventional items sometimes leads people to believe that the carbon footprint of the entire set decreases rather than increases. This negative footprint illusion is supposedly underpinned by an averaging bias: people base environmental impact estimates not on the total impact of items but on their average. Here, we found that the illusion’s magnitude increased with the addition of a greater number of “green” items when the number of conventional items remained constant (Studies 1 and 2), supporting the averaging-bias account. We challenged this account by testing what happens when the number of items in the conventional and “green” categories vary while holding the ratio between the two categories constant (Study 3). At odds with the averaging-bias account, the magnitude of the illusion increased as the category size increased, revealing a category-size bias, and raising questions about the interplay between these biases in the illusion.<p/>}},
  author       = {{Andersson, Hanna and Holmgren, Mattias and Sörqvist, Patrik and Threadgold, Emma and Beaman, C. Philip and Ball, Linden J. and Marsh, John E.}},
  issn         = {{2044-5911}},
  keywords     = {{bias; environmental impact; Negative footprint illusion}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{295--307}},
  publisher    = {{Psychology Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cognitive Psychology}},
  title        = {{The negative footprint illusion is exacerbated by the numerosity of environment-friendly additions : unveiling the underpinning mechanisms}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2024.2313568}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/20445911.2024.2313568}},
  volume       = {{36}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}