Does a holiday break disrupt pro-environmental behaviors? Using field data to test the durability of pro-environmental behaviors and the moderating effect of habit

For pro-environmental behaviors to have a meaningful impact, they need to be maintained and resilient to temporary interruptions in daily life. Yet, the effects of temporal interruptions on pro-environmental behaviors are rarely explored. The present research applied a regression discontinuity in time approach to a large field dataset from a system for reusing food containers and examined the effect of the Christmas break on 17,284 individuals’ use of the system. On average, the temporal interruption was associated with a 16.7 % drop in individuals’ use of reusable food containers. However, the interruption had a smaller effect on individuals for whom the behavior was more habitual, as measured by the extent to which the individuals used the system in consistent times and places before the interruption. This finding suggests that stronger habits promoted the durability of pro-environmental behaviors.