You’ve seen the sign.
“Help us save the environment. Reuse your towel.”
It’s polite. Noble. Completely ineffective.
But when researchers tweaked the wording – just slightly – reuse rates jumped by nearly 30%.
They didn’t change the facts. They changed what other people were doing.
And suddenly, everyone wanted in.
The Behavioural Problem: Eco Appeals Don’t Drive Action
Asking people to be eco-conscious assumes:
- They care;
- They believe their action matters;
- They want to do the “right” thing.
But in reality, people…
- Are busy;
- Follow norms, not morals;
- Don’t like doing things that feel like sacrifice.
The Intervention: Turn the Mirror
Researchers (Goldstein, Cialdini & Griskevicius, 2008) tested a small change in hotel towel reuse messaging.
Instead of saying:
“Help save the environment.”
They said:
“The majority of guests who stayed in this room reused their towel.”
That tiny shift reframed the behaviour from:
- “You should” → “Others already are”
- Abstract good → Observable norm
- Moral choice → Social alignment
Behavioural levers in play:
- Descriptive norms: What people actually do drives others more than what they should.
- Default behaviour imitation: “If others like me did it, I probably should too.”
- Social proof: We trust actions over values.
- Room-specific reference: Made the norm feel personal and local.
The Result: Reuse Went Up
- The original message = ~35% towel reuse.
- Social norm message = 44–48% reuse.
- The “same room” variant? Even higher.
- Translation: 10–30% behavioural lift with zero new incentives, costs, or effort.
The Takeaway for Business
Want more people to take action?
- Show them others already have
- Make the norm visible, local, and relatable
- Don’t preach sustainability – signal what’s normal
People don’t want to be good. They want to be like everyone else.
Use that.
