Introducing and testing the personal-collective-governmental efficacy typology: How personal, collective, and governmental efficacy subtypes are associated with differential environmental actions

Abstract

Efficacy beliefs are pivotal for pro-environmental actions but conceptualized and labeled differently across research lines. Based on research from multiple fields in the social sciences, this paper presents a complete synthesis of how seven efficacy beliefs relate to pro-environmental action in the Personal-Collective-Governmental typology (PCG). The goal of this typology is to bridge social science disciplines, spark future research, and help explain environmentally significant behavior. A cross-sectional study (N = 556) confirms, using CFA, that seven efficacy subtypes can be discerned. Further, we used the typology to investigate how the seven efficacy subtypes are associated with a range of pro-environmental actions. OLS regressions showed that different efficacy subtypes are associated with different classes of pro-environmental action (e.g., private sphere behavioral intentions, public sphere behavioral intentions, private sphere policy support, and public sphere policy support). Supplemental Relative Importance Analyses gave an indication of which efficacy subtypes are most important for the different classes of pro-environmental action. This new PCG classification generates novel predictions and enables researchers to select fitting efficacy interventions for specific behaviors.