Editorial: Behavioural spillovers

Abstract:

Our actions and choices in one situation today can affect how we act in another situation tomorrow. There is growing interest in the existence and relevance of such “behavioral spillovers” by academics and policy makers alike, as significant spillovers from one behavioral domain to another domain can have profound implications for the evaluation of policies and interventions aimed at encouraging behavioral change, for example in the pro-environmental and prosocial domains. Yet, the evidence on the direction and magnitude of spillovers is mixed, which is perhaps unsurprising given that such effects are likely to be highly context-dependent and may involve a complex set of psychological mechanisms such as moral licensing or consistency concerns. This Research Topic presents a collection of five contributions that aim at advancing our understanding of behavioral spillovers and their underlying mechanisms.