Anticipated guilt and anti-littering civic engagement in an extended norm activation model

Abstract

The norm activation model typically concerns behaviors individuals perform to avoid contributing to an environmental problem, which recent research characterized as self-managing behaviors. That research also accounted for behaviors focused on the actions of others, which it labeled other-managing behaviors, finding such behaviors are uniquely related to community attachment and anticipated shame/embarrassment. The current study accounts additionally for civic engagement, which it conceptualizes as a “sibling” of other-managing behaviors. Structural equation modeling of data from a national survey of Singapore residents (N = 949) showed that anticipated shame/embarrassment is related to other managing behavior (β = 0.10) and civic engagement (β = 0.15). In an alternative model, this study added anticipated guilt as a predictor of other managing behavior (β = 0.29) and civic engagement (β = 0.21). In that latter model, anticipated shame/embarrassment was not a significant predictor of either outcome variable. A general conclusion is that the extended norm activation model should include guilt as a predictor of other-managing behaviors and civic engagement. The discussion considers these findings in relation to responsibility denial, emotional arousal, and group-based emotions.