High-income Households—Damned to consume or free to engage in high-impact energy-saving behaviours?

Abstract

Private households play a relevant role in reducing CO2 emissions, but it remains unclear whether and which psychological factors are related to emissions. Given the relevance of income as a general driver of consumption and CO2 emissions, it seems particularly important to investigate how income and psychological variables interact. In two studies (a convenience sample from a city in Saxony Anhalt with N = 642 participants and a representative sample from Saxony Anhalt with N = 300 participants), we investigated the moderating role of household income in correlations between motivational variables (biospheric value orientation, personal norm to protect the climate, and sufficiency orientation) and intentions to engage in three types of environmentally relevant behaviours (curtailment behaviours, efficiency behaviours, and political behaviours). Results showed that motivational factors were correlated with all three behavioural domains. High- and low-income households differed significantly in correlations between motivational factors and efficiency intentions. As expected, correlations between motivational factors and intentions to engage in political behaviours did not seem to be affected by income.