Does low-carbon nudging work for travelers of the young generation? Nudging customers to reduce personal air travel within Europe - An experiment with Swiss Generation Y and Z travelers

Climate change and global warming, largely caused by human produced greenhouse gases, are among the greatest challenges our society is facing today. The aviation industry is a substantial contributor of emissions, causing 2 - 3% of total global emissions. With CO2 being the largest source of those emissions, the industry is substantially driving climate change. A change in human travel behavior towards low-carbon travel mode choices is necessary to target global climate goals. Past research has shown that the concept of nudging can be used to influence human decision making towards a more sustainable lifestyle, also with regards to travel decisions. This paper aims at finding how nudging can be used to influence customers to make more sustainable travel choices and to reduce personal air travel within Europe. The nudge of goal framing is applied in an online experiment and tested with a survey on a Swiss convenience sample with young travelers of the generation X and Y. The results show that there is no significant difference between the treatment groups and the effectiveness of goal framing cannot be confirmed. However, the respondents show a sustainable attitude and intention to make more environmentally friendly decisions when it comes to travel choices within Europe.