“Hi, I’m Terri Towel. Please Reuse Me.” Can Anthropomorphizing Towels Prompt Tourists to Reuse Them?

We leverage anthropomorphism—attributing human-like characteristics (e.g., speech and emotions) to non-human objects (i.e., towels)—to communicate appeals from various theoretical perspectives to prompt hotel guests to reuse their towels. In survey experiments, we directly compare interventions based on competing theoretical constructs such as social norms, environmental beliefs, enjoyment, and perceived effort, with and without anthropomorphism. Results from two survey experiments show that anthropomorphizing towels made people perceive them as more human-like and experience higher levels of self-transcendent emotions (e.g., empathy) toward the towel. Anthropomorphism combined with a message about the effort of reusing a towel significantly increased hand towel reuse in a field experiment without affecting guest satisfaction. However, the effect was limited to hand towels. This cost-effective intervention can be readily implemented to enhance sustainability and reduce laundry costs. Nonetheless, stronger interventions, such as default changes, may be needed to achieve a larger impact on towel reuse overall.