Money for (almost) nothing? – Measuring individuals’ willingness to externalise costs across space, time, and species

This study presents the concept of willingness to externalise costs (WTE), defined as the willingness to pass on individually small costs to many other actors for significant personal gain. In the modern world, external costs (in the form of negative environmental or social impacts) frequently arise as a result of everyday consumption decisions, but are often distant from the consumer in space and time. Our study aims to examine how people react if these costs are made explicit. WTE is a measure that can shed light on individuals’ attitudes regarding a fundamental element of unsustainable behaviour (cost externalisation), removing the influence of any confounding factors pertaining to specific issues or situations (such as scepticism about climate change, lack of alternatives, distrust in green product claims, etc.). The concept was tested on a sample of 3669 Hungarian undergraduate business students. Our research questions are: (1) To what extent are individuals willing to externalise costs? (2) How does the identity of the suffering party influence WTE? We found that 27% of respondents reject cost externalisation, with a pronounced difference between genders: women generally exhibit a lower WTE, and their answers follow a normal distribution. Conversely, men tend to show a higher willingness to externalise, and their answers are exponentially distributed. We found no difference in WTE across space (passing on costs to people from the same country vs. to people far away), while externalising costs to future individuals and animals was more accepted.