Salience and information avoidance in voluntary carbon offsetting decisions: Evidence from online experiments
通过两个在线实验，研究了信息显著性和信息规避如何影响个人在自愿碳抵消中的捐款行为，发现排放信息越显著捐款越多，而环保倾向低的人会主动回避信息导致捐款减少。
This paper investigates the behavioural drivers of voluntary carbon offsets, which allow individuals to reduce their emissions by funding environmental and energy projects. Despite the growth of the voluntary carbon market, the factors influencing these decisions remain under-researched. This study uses two incentivized online experiments to examine the role of information salience and information avoidance as determinants of offsetting behaviour. The results indicate that: (i) when carbon emissions are more saliently linked to consumption activities, contributions to offset programmes increase; (ii) individuals with a lower pro-environmental orientation tend to avoid information about their emissions, leading to lower contributions; and (iii) deliberate avoidance or pursuit of information can either reduce or increase contributions, respectively, compared to scenarios where information is either unavailable or provided by default.