The aviation industry is a growing contributor to climate change, yet frequent flying has become a normalized behavior even among environmentally conscious individuals. This paradox, characterized by the attitude–behavior gap, reveals how social norms and cognitive dissonance sustain unsustainable travel practices. This thesis investigates how social norm interventions can be strategically designed to disrupt these dynamics and encourage sustainable alternatives among young professionals.
The research adopts a mixed-methods approach. Study 1 employed qualitative interviews to explore how individuals negotiate social expectations, experience conflicting emotions, and rationalize frequent flying. Findings highlighted the powerful influence of peer validation, the tension between environmental values and travel choices, and coping strategies such as justification and moral licensing. Study 2 tested these insights through a quantitative experiment with a between-subjects design, examining the effects of different social norm framings on emotional responses, perceived environmental impact, purchase intentions, and travel mode selection. Results showed that unsustainable static norm + unsustainable dynamic norm framings increased participants’ purchase intentions to choose trains over planes, triggers the negative feelings such as guilty, anxiety, frustration etc.
By integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence, this thesis demonstrates that how social norms can be reframed to shift travel choices. The findings advance understanding of how social norm reinforce the attitude–behavior gap and provide actionable insights for policymakers, organizations, and designers aiming to foster more sustainable mobility practices.