Re-using towels: sign of the times
When are hotel-goers more likely to reuse towels? When they know other guests are also doing it, says a new study.
The study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, found that the types of signs posted in hotel bathrooms had different effects — signs that focused on the environmental benefits were less effective than signs that pointed out the level of participation of other guests.
Study authors Noah J. Goldstein of the University of Chicago, Robert B. Cialdini and Vladas Griskevicius, both Arizona State University, got a hotel chain to allow them to create a series of different towel re-use cards, which were placed in the hotel’s bathrooms.
Some cards read “Help Save the Environment” and others read “Join Your Fellow Guests in Helping to Save the Environment.”
In another study, the researchers were able to boost towel reuse even further by placing a sign in the room that said 75% of guests in that specific room re-used their towels.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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