Promoting green residential buildings: Residents' environmental attitude, subjective knowledge, and social trust matter

Abstract

The importance of psychological factors is increasingly being recognized in driving the green building (GB) movement. However, few empirical studies have gone deeper to explore specific psychological factors and their impacts on residents' acceptance of green labeled residential buildings (GLRBs). This study develops an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explain residents' intention to adopt GLRBs, and examine it in a survey (N = 342) conducted in Tianjin City, China. The results show that subjective knowledge about GLRBs, social trust in organizations responsible for GLRBs, perceived usefulness from GLRBs, attitude towards GLRBs, and general environmental attitude measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, are the significant psychological determinants of intention to adopt GLRBs. It is also found that lacking subjective knowledge and social trust among our surveyed residents could be the psychological barriers to their acceptance of GLRBs. The psychological factors we identified provide references for policymakers to effectively develop residents' behavioral intervention strategies and allocate resources in GB promoting schemes. It is highly necessary to equip residents with more knowledge about GLRBs and improve their social trust in organizations responsible for delivering GLRBs.