Social-contextual influences on public participation in incentive programs of household waste separation

Despite the widespread use of financial incentives to encourage public participation in household waste separation, recent studies have revealed the mixed success of this strategy. The present study seeks to advance our understanding of the social-contextual conditions in which financial incentives are more or less effective. Based on theories of social influence, it has investigated how program advocates, neighbor networks, and community norms affect public participation in incentivized waste-separation programs. Generalized linear mixed model analyses of more than 150,000 daily participation records for residents in 347 housing estates in Hangzhou, China have been conducted to examine the theoretical propositions. The results show that substituting ingroup members (block leaders) for outgroup agents (company staff) as program advocates increased the total number of participants. However, block leaders contributed little or even negatively to mobilizing people who had never participated previously. Levels of participation were higher among residents with stronger social networks, but lower in communities with more salient volunteerism norms. These findings illuminate the substantial interaction between financial incentives and social influences, suggesting ways to use social forces to improve incentive programs of household waste separation.