Beyond subjective and personal: Endorsing pro-environmental norms as moral norms

Abstract

Numerous studies demonstrated that pro-environmental norms predict pro-environmental behavior. Yet little attention has been devoted to the normativity of these norms, whether they qualify as social-conventional or moral. The present study examined moral endorsement of pro-environmental norms and how it relates to moral emotions and pro-environmental behavior. Based on nation-wide online survey with 1251 Canadian participants (mean age = 23.3 years, 48.7% females), it was demonstrated that moral endorsement of pro-environmental norms forms a continuous scale that fits the assumptions of a Rasch item-response model. Moral endorsement of pro-environmental norms was associated with various types of moral emotions and pro-environmental behavior. Individuals' sense of personal obligation partially mediated the effect of moral endorsement on pro-environmental behavior. Findings indicate that moral endorsement is distinct from conceptualizations of pro-environmental norms as either personal or subjective as defined in leading accounts of environmental psychology employed to explain why people take pro-environmental actions.