EXPLAINING HOW GREEN CONSUMERS MIGHT BEHAVE BADLY—SINGLE ACTION BIAS.

EXPLAINING HOW GREEN CONSUMERS MIGHT BEHAVE BADLY—SINGLE ACTION BIAS. The New York Times article offers an explanation of the bad behavior of green consumers that is based on a theory of “single action bias”, and quotes a description of single action bias given by The Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University in New York. The term apparently is used often in discussing climate change and is used to explain why people don’t take more actions to fight climate change. “People often take no further action … because the first one succeeded in reducing their feeling of worry or vulnerability. This phenomenon is called the single-action bias.” The Times article extends this theory. If people aren’t willing to do more to fight global warming after they take some environmental actions, they might also be willing “to curtail generosity and resort to thievery.” Although the single action bias theory apparently is usually applied to environmental actions, it obviously could apply more generally.