Abstract : Examining the regional distribution of 15 different Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Practices (MPs) across Australia,
we study the tendency for consumers to imitate visible pro-environmental behavior in their local region. While
there is a great deal of variation in the specific type of MPs adopted by consumers located in the same region,
ANOVA results suggest that they tend to adopt a similar number of MPs as their neighbours. Using discrete
choice modelling, our results suggest that this is due to the peer adoption of certain visible MPs, such as using
public transport or car-pooling, encouraging agents to adopt other types of visible MPs. However, the character
of this spillover is limited in that visible pro-environmental behavior does not appear to influence the adoption of
non-visible MPs. We also find that social imitation patterns help individuals overcome the observed gap between
their stated concern about climate change and their propensity to act on this concern, known as the climate
‘value-action’ gap. Policy implications for designing effective green nudges are discussed.