The employment of self-awareness in investigating public willingness to implement low-carbon: The application of labeling theory

Abstract

Focusing on improving public willingness to implement low-carbon, this research investigated how labeling stimulus will affect environmental subjective norms and how environmental subjective norms can influence the willingness to implement low-carbon through the development, establishment, and consolidation of self-awareness. Hence, with the experimental method, this research invited the respondents to participate in an information stimulation experiment for verification. According to the results, individuals with single labeling stimulus have higher environmental subjective norms than those without labeling stimulus, while individuals with self-labeling stimulus have stronger environmental subjective norms than those with social labeling stimulus; individuals with labeling combination stimulus have higher environmental subjective norms than those with single labeling stimulus, while individuals received self-labeling before social labeling stimulus have stronger environmental subjective norm than those received social labeling before self-labeling stimulus. This research contributes to a theoretical perspective by (1) dividing labeling theory into stimuli and awareness, (2) explaining the relationship between self-consciousness and social responsibility from the perspective of social influence, (3) explaining how social labeling and self-labeling work, and (4) describing how self-awareness contributes to the development of individual knowledge. Moreover, this study suggests that designing corresponding advertising information strategies for each labeling stimulus can enhance people's environmental subjective norms.