Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Article
  • Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

Social Recycling Transforms Unwanted Goods into Happiness

By: Grant Edward Donnelly, Cait Lamberton, Rebecca Walker Reczek and Michael I. Norton
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Consumers are often surrounded by resources that once offered meaning or happiness but that have lost this subjective value over time—even as they retain their objective utility. We explore the potential for social recycling—disposing of used goods by allowing other consumers to acquire them at no cost—to transform unused physical resources into increased consumer happiness. Six studies suggest that social recycling increases positive affect relative to trash, recycling, and donations of goods to nonprofit organizations. Both perceptions of helping the environment and helping other people drive this increase in positive affect. We conclude that social recycling offers a scalable means for reengineering the end of the consumption cycle to transform unused resources into happiness. We suggest that further research should continue to enrich a general theory of disposition, such that we are able to maximize the ecological, interpersonal, and community utility of partially depleted resources.

Keywords

Disposition; Well-being; Prosocial Behavior; Pro-environmental Behavior; Happiness; Behavior; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Environmental Sustainability

Citation

Donnelly, Grant Edward, Cait Lamberton, Rebecca Walker Reczek, and Michael I. Norton. "Social Recycling Transforms Unwanted Goods into Happiness." Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2, no. 1 (January 2017): 48–63.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now
  • Purchase

About The Author

Michael I. Norton

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • November 2022
    • Psychological Science

    Opportunity Neglect: An Aversion to Low-probability Gains

    By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton
    • October 17, 2022
    • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    Relational Diversity in Social Portfolios Predicts Well-Being

    By: Hanne K. Collins, Serena F. Hagerty, Jordi Quoidbach, Michael I. Norton and Alison Wood Brooks
    • July 2022
    • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals

    By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
More from the Authors
  • Opportunity Neglect: An Aversion to Low-probability Gains By: Emily Prinsloo, Kate Barasz, Leslie K. John and Michael I. Norton
  • Relational Diversity in Social Portfolios Predicts Well-Being By: Hanne K. Collins, Serena F. Hagerty, Jordi Quoidbach, Michael I. Norton and Alison Wood Brooks
  • When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College