Spread the Green Word: A Social Community Perspective Into Environmentally Sustainable Behavior

Abstract

Engagement in proenvironmental behavior can be understood in part by considering how individuals operate as members of social communities and are influenced by these communities. In the present work, we use social network analysis to explore how social network structure predicts proenvironmental behavior. We consider three types of behaviors—(a) private, (b) public nonorganizational, and (c) organizational behaviors—and consider the potential for (i) behavioral diffusion and (ii) two types of opinion leader influence for each of these three behaviors within a religious social community. Results are consistent with patterns indicating diffusion for public nonorganizational and organizational, but not private behaviors. In contrast, being well connected with many opinion leaders to whom one would go for advice (but not simply being friends with these individuals) is associated with greater engagement in all three types of proenvironmental behavior.