Normative Influence of pro-Environmental Intentions in Adolescents with Different Personality Types

Abstract

Persuasive messages that are tailored to target innate biases and behavioral tendencies have been shown to be effective in promoting pro-environmental behaviors. There is, however, a lack of understanding whether individuals who have different patterns of personality traits react to these stimuli differently. The present study addressed precisely this question. Persuasive pro-environmental messages were placed in a school and changes in pro-environmental intentions and related variables of the adolescents attending that school were observed. The findings show that adolescents with different patterns of personality traits are indeed differently affected by persuasive messages and people with different patterns of personality traits in general approach pro-environmental behaviors quite differently. This has important practical implications for the creation of public service announcements aimed at promoting pro-environmental behavior.