The Motivational Roots of Norms for Environmentally Responsible Behavior

We assessed whether people use a magnitude-matching principle in determining causes for complex social events. We hypothesized that individuals tend to favor causal explanations that match the event in terms of size and scope. In Experiment 1, the magnitude of the consequences of events was manipulated, and participants were presented with two potential causes of modest magnitude and two potential causes of high magnitude. Analyses revealed a relative magnitude-matching effect such that participants were more likely to select high magnitude causes for large magnitude events than modest magnitude events and more likely to select modest magnitude causes for modest magnitude events than large magnitude events. Experiment 2 replicated the magnitude-matching effect with a different event and set of causes, and demonstrated that this effect could be reversed by undermining participants' beliefs in the magnitude-matching principle.