Aiding pro-environmental behavior measurement by Internet of Things

Abstract

• We summarize the current behavior measurement of pro-environmental behavior. • We present the need to measure behavior using IoT data. • We illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of big data to measure behavior and provide a new paradigm. • We advocate for more behavioral research using objective big data and point the way forward. Promoting pro-environmental behavior is an effective means of reducing carbon emissions at the individual end, but the measurement of behavior has long been a problem for scholars. Especially in environmental psychology community, the complexity of social policies and habitat implies greater difficulty in measuring. Due to the limitations of traditional questionnaire, laboratory, and naturalistic observation methods, environmental psychologists need more realistic, accurate, and cost-effective ways to measure behavior. The rapid development of IoT technology lights up the hope for achieving this goal, and its large-scale popularization will bring great changes to the research community. This paper reviews the current methods and their limitations, proposes a framework for measuring behavior using IoT devices, and points out its future research directions.