Abstract
The social system can spread tightly coupled complex practices under the context that members of the social system do not have the shared experience that enables them to coordinate within longstanding tight formal organizations. To promote the understanding of such a process, and given the possibility for other members in the social system to cheat and adopt pro-environment behavior, we draw on the organizational justice literature and the perspective of justice enforceability, and construal level theory, to develop a conceptual model in which the impact of social members’ perceived psychological distance on their response to other social members adoption of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is contingent on their perception of justice enforceability and cognitive appraisals (positive, not significant) towards other social members’ adoption of PEBs. We find that when social members perceive that the adoption of pro-environment behaviors is justice-enforceable, their cognitive appraisals of other social members’ adoption of PEBs is high, and then the more proximal the psychological distance they perceive, the stronger they will react to other social members’ adoption of PEBs. Further, they will adopt and enact such behaviors, otherwise, they would be unwilling to adopt and enact such behaviors. So, uneven perceived psychological distance of social members can harm their adoption and the spread of pro-environment behavior. We tested our model in a survey study. Results show that the proposed model is supported, and our understanding is enhanced about how social members’ willingness to adopt and spread pro-environment behavior is contingent on their perceptions of justice enforceability. This paper is comprised of five parts, of which include an introduction, a part on the theory and hypothesis, data and methods, results and discussion, and conclusion.
Highlights
Environmental problems, especially those in developing countries, are still deteriorating, and the negative externalities generated by this deterioration have made developed countries suffer due to climate warming, but has led to many other serious environmental problems, such as floods and drought (Swim et al, 2011)
Social members may think that good environment is public goods, and protecting the environment is the responsibility of the government or other public sectors or other people, and they tend to rely on such public goods (Lorenzoni and Pidgeon, 2006), so that they may think that environmental issues are important in their minds, they are still unwilling to adopt and spread pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in practice (Espeland and Kettenring, 2018)
Psychological response is positively related to perceived psychological distance (r = 0.648, p < 0.01) and willingness to spread PEBs (r = 0.646, p < 0.01), perceived psychological distance is positively related to willingness to spread PEBs (r = 0.825, p < 0.01)
Summary
Environmental problems, especially those in developing countries, are still deteriorating, and the negative externalities generated by this deterioration have made developed countries suffer due to climate warming, but has led to many other serious environmental problems, such as floods and drought (Swim et al, 2011). Social members may think that good environment is public goods, and protecting the environment is the responsibility of the government or other public sectors or other people, and they tend to rely on such public goods (Lorenzoni and Pidgeon, 2006), so that they may think that environmental issues are important in their minds, they are still unwilling to adopt and spread PEBs in practice (Espeland and Kettenring, 2018) To put it differently, the social members’ perception of the psychological distance of environmental issues affects their attitudes and behaviors toward environmental issues, the magnitude of the impact is uncertain and contingent on other factors (Gärling et al, 2003)
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