Limited overlap between behavioral tasks, pro-environmental propensity, and carbon footprint

Abstract

Self-reports of behavior are often aggregated to measure generalized pro-environmental propensity or environmental impact. Behavioral tasks such as the Carbon Emission Task (CET) and the Work for Environmental Protection Task (WEPT) allow observing specific behaviors with environmental consequences under controlled conditions. It is unclear to what extent these tasks reflect individual differences in pro-environmental propensity and environmental impact. In a pre-registered online study of 575 residents of England, we estimated associations between these behavioral tasks, common propensity and impact measures, as well as socioeconomic status. The CET and WEPT were weakly related to each other, and weakly to moderately to stronger environmentalist identity and the Recurring Pro-environmental Behavior Scale (REBS). This is consistent with the CET and WEPT covering part of people’s generalized propensity to act pro-environmentally. In addition, the CET and REBS were weakly related to lower carbon footprint, but the WEPT and environmentalist identity were not, providing further evidence that pro-environmental propensity has limited relevance for environmental impact. Income and wealth were moderately related to a higher carbon footprint, underscoring the need for changing high-impact behaviors, especially among affluent people.