What ultimately prevents the pro-environmental behavior? An in-depth and extensive study of the behavioral costs

Abstract

There have been many studies on behavioral cost’s role in influencing pro-environmental behavior, however, a quantitative and universal measure for behavioral cost is still lacking. In this study, we first made an attempt to construct an indirect yet more rigorous measure for behavioral cost. Only with such a behavioral cost measure can more quantitative studies of behavioral cost’s role on behavior become feasible across a series of pro-environmental behaviors. Based on this measure, low cost hypothesis is tested and confirmed with our surveyed data. To extend behavioral cost study beyond recycling, we have carried out an in-depth and extensive study on a series of daily environmental behaviors from China’s urban residents, with cost components associated with each behavior directly surveyed. Key behavioral cost components in each studied environmental behavior have been identified through logit regression analysis. Habits are still hindering China urban residents from conducting pro-environmental behaviors across all environmental behaviors significantly. For recycling, improper facility is the major barrier, while for other resource saving behaviors, loss of comfort and financial burden are acting as major behavioral barriers. We also explicitly studied the separate roles of personal norm and perceived efficacy together with attitude and behavioral cost in an integrated framework, and we found that personal norm and perceived efficacy play considerable roles for certain behaviors.