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Interventions for voluntary proenvironmental behavior change usually target a limited number of behaviors and have difficulties in achieving durable change. The EcoTeam Program (ETP) is an intervention package that aims to overcome these flaws. Through a combination of information, feedback, and social interaction in a group—the EcoTeam—participants focus on the environmental consequences of their household behavior. The 3-year longitudinal study found that ETP participants ( N= 150) changed half of the 38 household behaviors examined, with corresponding reductions on four physical measures of resource use. These improvements were maintained or enlarged 2 years after completion of the ETP, amounting to savings from 7% on water consumption to 32% on solid waste deposition. A detailed analysis of one behavior, means of transportation, suggests that change can be predicted from the interplay between behavioral intention and habitual performance before participation, and the degree of social influence experienced in the EcoTeam during participation.

In two experiments we compared contrasting findings on bad news transmission likelihood between literature on rumors and the MUM-effect in order to contribute to the development of a more general theory of news transmission. We argued that several contextual differences account for the contrasting findings between these research conditions. We predicted that fate similarity and fate uncertainty (both present in many rumor contexts and absent in most MUM-contexts) enhance the anticipated personal outcomes of bad news transmission for communicators and hence increase bad news transmission. Supporting our argument, we found that fate uncertainty and fate similarity each increased the likelihood of bad news transmission up to the level of good news transmission. Furthermore, these effects were mediated by communicators' anticipated personal outcomes of transmission. In addition, Experiment 2 demonstrated anticipated personal outcomes to be only an important motive for news transmission decisions in superficial relationships; for close relationships, experienced moral responsibility appeared to be the paramount motive for transmission.

This article describes how the effectiveness of risk communication is determined by the interaction between emotional and informative elements. An experiment is described that examined the role of negative emotion in communication about CO2 risks. This experiment was based on the elaboration likelihood model and the related heuristic systematic model of attitude formation. The results indicated that inducing fear of CO2 risks leads to systematic processing of information about energy conservation as a risk‐reducing strategy. In turn, this results in more favorable attitudes toward energy conservation if strong arguments are provided. Individual differences in concern seem to have similar effects.

Workshop managers in garages (N = 153) received a message by mail with recommendations on how their subordinates should behave to reduce oil pollution of wastewater. The recommendations were either tailored or not tailored to the current behavior routines in each specific workshop. Tailored messages resulted in more accurate knowledge (assessed 1 week postintervention) and in more pro-environmental behavior (assessed 3 months postintervention and compared to pretest data). Tailored messages were as effective with or without additional information on behavior routines in other garages. Compared to no message (control group, n = 60), the tailored messages resulted in more pro-environmental behavior. The nontailored messages were hardly more effective than no message. The nontailored messages remained as ineffective when readers were helped (via a routing procedure) to select those parts of the message relevant to their workshop. It is concluded that tailoring is a promising new approach when campaigning for pro-environmental behavior in organizations.