Pro-environmental Behavioral Intentions Research Articles

Dual trust, emotional bond, and tourists’ on-site pro-environmental behavior at nature-based destinations: Extending norm-activation theory from the perspective of social dilemma

The sustainable development of tourism is closely tied to the protection and preservation of natural environments, particularly in nature-based destinations where the appeal and competitiveness depend heavily on the quality of environmental resources. Among the various strategies to enhance environmental sustainability, a strong emphasis has been placed on encouraging tourists to engage in spontaneous on-site pro-environmental behavior (PEB). However, tourists' participation in PEB at travel destinations often presents a scenario of social dilemma, where individual interests conflict with collective benefits. This conflict often makes individuals less willing to engage in PEB in the tourism context than they would in their everyday environments. To address this issue, the study advances the norm-activation theory (NAT), a well-established framework in PEB studies, by incorporating trust and emotion—two critical factors in resolving social dilemmas. An integrated model was proposed to better understand and predict the formation of tourists' on-site PEB and was empirically tested on a sample of 544 visitors from three natural parks in Hangzhou, China. The results reveal that (1) the two dimensions of trust—interpersonal trust and outcome trust—have significant effects on the key cognitive variables in NAT, namely ascription of responsibility and awareness of consequence, and (2) the emotional bond developed between tourists and the destination significantly enhances the link between ascription of responsibility and tourists' PEB intentions through the mediation of personal norm. These findings suggest that innovative interactive-based approaches can be implemented to more effectively promote tourists’ on-site PEB, thereby fostering sustainability in nature-based destinations.

Translating pro-environmental intention to behavior: The role of moral licensing effect

Despite an individual's altruistic intentions, these are not always put into practice. The gap between the intentions and behaviors hinders pro-environmental consumption behavior, which has been a highly important subject in the field. Considering that pro-environmental consumption is an altruistic behavior that adjusts and resolves the disparity between personal interests and social values, the role of moral licensing effect should get more attention in translating intention into behavior. However, existing studies failed to thoroughly examine the role of moral licensing effect. To address the gap in the literature, this study specifically attempted to investigate how the moral license effect influences when individual good intentions are linked to behavior. For this purpose, this study developed a novel behavioral model based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), while also examining the significance of the pathway through which pro-environmental behavioral intention influences actual behavior. This study conducted an online self-reported survey online and analyzed the data from 1000 participants. As a result, the level of moral licensing significantly moderated the association between pro-environmental behavioral intention and actual behavior. Participants with higher levels of moral licensing, indicating a greater tendency to rationalize unethical actions, showed a weaker translation of intention into action. It recommends developing differentiated communication strategies based on consumers' moral licensing levels, focusing on facilitating intention-to-action translation for high moral licensing individuals and reinforcing antecedents like perceived benefits for those with low moral licensing tendencies.

Explaining the Rich Entertainment Appeal of Nature Documentaries and its Conflicting Motivational Consequences

ABSTRACT Nature documentaries are among the most popular media formats but are understudied in communication research. However, due to the format’s multifaceted potential to simultaneously inform, entertain, and persuade, nature documentaries seem particularly worthy of investigation. The present contribution has two aims: (1) to explain how nature documentaries facilitate entertainment responses in their viewers and (2) to investigate how entertainment experiences resulting from watching nature documentaries are linked with viewers’ pro-environmental behavior intentions and travel intentions. To establish a firm theoretical base, we integrated conceptual foundations from entertainment research and environmental psychology. To test our hypotheses, we analyzed data from two preregistered experiments: a paper-pencil study (N = 179) and an online study that aimed to replicate the findings of our first study (N = 308). Our findings provide initial evidence for the dual (i.e. hedonic and eudaimonic) entertainment qualities of nature documentaries and the mediating roles of suspense and awe. Furthermore, the results suggest that viewers’ hedonic entertainment experience is a relevant underpinning of their intention to travel to the depicted destination, whereas their eudaimonic experience inspires them to take action to protect the environment.

Fostering sustainable leisure activities: a behavioural insight into eco-friendly intentions in Mount Damavand

ABSTRACT Mount Damavand, the highest point in the Middle East and one of the most popular peaks in the region, is experiencing environmental degradation due to hikers’ activities, exacerbated by inadequate regulations and infrastructure to manage visitor volume and behaviour. This study delved into the pro-environmental behavioural intentions of hikers within the Mount Damavand National Park. Employing partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we examined a proposed framework extending the theory of planned behaviour by including the value-belief-norm theory and a formative approach to study constraints to pro-environmental behaviours of hikers. We analyzed a sample of 393 hikers. The findings underscored the effectiveness of amalgamating these theoretical frameworks and elucidated 46% of the variance in pro-environmental behavioural intention.

Does Regular Nature Exposure Benefit Environmentally Engaged Students? Effects of Botanical Garden Walks on Psychological and Behavioral Outcomes

Background and objective: The psychological and behavioral benefits of nature have been widely documented; yet less is known about whether these benefits are salient among environmentally engaged groups. This study examined the effects of walking regularly in a natural environment on the biospheric values, nature relatedness, psychological well-being, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions of university students in an environmental major.Methods: A total of 39 students were randomly assigned into treatment (n = 21) and control (n = 18) groups for a 15-week trial. The treatment group walked for 15 minutes in a campus botanical garden twice a week while the control group stayed indoor.Results: Pre- and post-test survey results indicated no significant effects of the treatment on the outcome variables, suggesting that those who engage with nature for disciplinary purposes did not benefit from prescribed exposure to nature.Conclusion: Programs that provide nature exposure to enhance mental well-being and pro-environmental behavior should take into account participants’ background and baseline interactions with nature.

Solutions Journalism Stories Boosts Pro-Environmental Behavioral Intentions Through Positive Affect and Collective Efficacy Beliefs

Climate change news narratives have been criticized for perpetuating fear and sensationalism without due attention to and critical emphasis on constructive dialogue and solutions. This study investigates the potential of solutions journalism, a novel journalistic approach that emphasizes credible narratives about the threats and societal responses to those threats, to facilitate collective social responses to climate change. Using a sample N = 482, the study manipulated news stories as solutions-oriented or conventional problem-oriented. Exposure to solutions stories only increased intentions for pro-environmental action when fully mediated by positive affect and higher collective efficacy. These results offer insights for journalism and climate communication.

Crossing Spatial Boundaries: A Study on the Impact of Green Human Resource Management on Employees’ Household Pro-Environmental Behaviors

To respond more effectively to the current increasingly serious environmental problems, the boundary of corporate social responsibility is expanding. In this context, how to take green responsibility for each stakeholder has become a topic of concern for all sectors of society. However, there is still a gap in research on how green human resource management (GHRM) affects employees’ household pro-environmental behavior (PEB) from a cross-domain work–family perspective to achieve CSR more comprehensively. Our study argues that companies can use GHRM across the work–family boundary to influence employees’ household pro-environmental behaviors to achieve positive contributions to the social environment. Our study uses 310 questionnaires collected in southeastern China to conduct an empirical analysis and concludes that GHRM can positively shape green attitudes, help employees perceive green subjective norms, and develop green self-efficacy. Consistent with the findings of the Theory of Planned Behavior, individuals’ green attitudes, green subjective norms, and green self-efficacy can effectively enhance individuals’ household pro-environmental behavioral intentions, which in turn enables the prediction of individuals’ household pro-environmental behaviors. In conclusion, our study extends the influence of GHRM to a wider range of non-work domains and points the way to the full realization of corporate social responsibility by companies. In addition, our study emphasizes that with the subtle cultivation of companies, individuals can become fans of green and low-carbon behaviors, and through the widespread implementation of pro-environmental behaviors, it can reach a virtuous circle of environmental protection as a whole.

Battle of the E-cowarriors: Differential effects of environmental appeals by influencers and organizations on youth's pro-environmental attitudes and behavior intentions

Environmental social media influencers (SMIs)—or ‘greenfluencers’—nowadays receive considerable scholarly and public attention. Yet, SMIs' persuasive power compared to institutional sources like environmental nonprofit organizations (ENPOs) on social media remains uninvestigated. We address this gap with a pre-registered between-subjects experiment (N = 269) among 16-to-25-year-olds from Belgium using real SMIs and ENPOs. We find that both sources affect pro-environmental outcomes, but via different mechanisms and among different groups. ENPOs are perceived as more trustworthy, which translates to higher pro-environmental attitudes and behavior intentions. SMIs affect pro-environmental behavior intentions via wishful identification and perceived similarity—yet only among women with higher environmental concern. Both sources stimulate pro-environmental outcomes via perceptions of attainability. Finally, SMIs' effects on pro-environmental outcomes are not fully explained by these source perceptions, which points to the necessity to study additional mechanisms. Overall, our findings illuminate important boundary conditions and mechanisms of newfangled pro-environmental persuasion via social media.

Examining the (non-linear) relationships between climate change anxiety, information seeking, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions

Climate change anxiety—overwhelming feelings of distress about climate change—is increasingly recognized as an important mental health consequence of climate change. A growing body of literature has documented positive associations between climate change anxiety, information seeking/avoidance, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Recent speculation exists about the possibility of non-linear associations between climate anxiety and other outcomes; for example, among people with very high climate anxiety, information seeking might be lower— because it is too distressing —than among those with moderate anxiety. Similarly, very high levels of climate anxiety might result in lower behavioral intentions. The present research aimed to replicate and extend findings concerning relations between climate anxiety, information seeking/avoidance, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions by correlating these variables and testing for possible non-linearities in the relationships. Results confirmed that climate anxiety was positively correlated with information seeking, avoidance, and a measure of hypothetical behavioral intentions. Quadratic regression models yielded mixed evidence for the presence of non-linearities, with non-linearity present for some variables (e.g., information avoidance and hypothetical behavioral intentions) but not for others (e.g., seeking out data about climate change). We consider implications of our results and discuss directions for future research to bolster understanding of how climate anxiety relates to information seeking, avoidance, and behavior.

Exploring the role and mechanisms of environmental serious games in promoting pro-environmental decision-making: a focused literature review and future research agenda.

Environmental serious games aim to heighten players' awareness and comprehension of environmental issues, thus fostering pro-environmental decision-making. Research to date has affirmed these games' effectiveness in enhancing environmental knowledge and abilities, elevating consciousness regarding environmental matters, and promoting pro-environmental behavioral intentions and actions. Nonetheless, a detailed exploration into the precise mechanisms facilitating these impacts remains scarce. Leveraging theories of motivation, cognition, affect, and behavior, this paper outlines four hypothesized mechanisms of influence and introduces an Embodied-Enactive Cognition Model as a novel perspective. It suggests that future research should expand its inquiry into the multifaceted factors that influence pro-environmental decision-making, deepen the comprehension of the intrinsic mechanisms at play, pioneer novel research methodologies, and diversify the array of categories and contextual applications of environmental serious games.

How online pro-environmental games affect users’ pro-environmental behavioural intentions? — Insights from Ant Forest

Information technology has created new ways for people to participate in environmental protection. Ant Forest, a pro-environmental game that actively encourages users to take part in offline environmental activities through online gaming content, has gained great popularity. However, research in this area is still limited, and the effect of playing such games on users' pro-environmental intentions in real life and the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Therefore, this research draws from Persuasive Systems Design model and value theory and examines the relationships between design features of Ant Forest, users' values and their pro-environmental behavioural intentions. The research model is empirically tested by survey data from 428 Ant Forest users. Results indicate that users' self-enhancement values, including utilitarian, hedonic and social values, and self-transcendence values, including altruistic and biospheric values, all positively affect their continued gameplay intentions and therefore affect their pro-environmental behavioural intentions. Additionally, the primary task support, social support, dialogue support, and system credibility of Ant Forest have varying positive effects on users’ perceived values.

The awe-habitual model: exploring tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors in religious settings

This study proposes a novel comprehensive model integrating contextual, habitual, and psychological processes to address the multi-determination feature of tourists’ pro-environmental behavior (TPEB) intention. The model includes religious ambience as a contextual process, domestic pro-environmental behavior (DPEB) as a habitual process, and awe, along with Norm Activation Theory, as a psychological process. A questionnaire survey was administered at Guandi Temple, a popular religious site in Haizhou, China, collecting 363 valid datasets to test the model using the Structured Equation Modelling method. The results indicate that TPEB intention is directly associated with DPEB and religious ambience. This connection also reveals that when visitors immerse themselves in a strong religious ambience, the stimulated awe will induce a higher level of TPEB intention, with the Norm Activation Theory mediating this relationship. Furthermore, this theory also explains the indirect spillover effect from DPEB to TPEB intention. Conclusively, this study proposes the validated comprehensive Awe-Habitual Model for TPEB intention, particularly applicable in religious destinations, integrating psychological, contextual, and habitual processes. It also verifies the self-transcendence of awe and extends the application of Norm Activation Theory to measure pro-environmental behavior spillovers. Practical suggestions on encouraging TPEB and promoting sustainable tourism are offered.

How the perception of climate change impacts sustainable tourism: empirical evidence from Taiwan

ABSTRACT Drawing on protection motivation theory and resilience theory, this study develops a conceptual framework of perceived vulnerability, perceived threat severity, coping appraisal, psychological resilience and pro-environmental behavioural intention based on a sample of 1,079 tourists in Taiwan. The empirical findings indicated that both tourists’ perceived vulnerability and perceived threat severity were significantly related to their coping appraisal. Moreover, tourists’ coping appraisals were positively and significantly related to their psychological resilience, which positively and statistically impacted their pro-environmental behavioural intentions. Tourists’ coping appraisals and psychological resilience also played meditating roles in the proposed conceptual framework. These findings thus extend scientific knowledge by providing insights and implications for sustainable tourism that contribute to the literature.

Understanding the antecedents of Chinese people’s pro-environmental behavior: the role of self-construal and news attention

This study aims to extend the attitude-intention-behavior model by adding news attention and interdependent self-construal as antecedents to understand the pro-environmental behavior of Chinese people. Results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis based on web survey data of 715 Chinese individuals show that interdependent self-construal significantly and positively affected individuals’ attention to environmental news messages on new media platforms. Such news attention then positively affected their attitude toward pro-environmental behavior. In turn, pro-environmental behavioral attitude positively affected their pro-environmental behavioral intention. Finally, individuals’ pro-environmental behavioral intention positively led to their actual pro-environmental behavior. Besides, the results demonstrated that interdependent self-construal also significantly and positively affects individuals’ intention of engaging in pro-environmental behavior, but little evidence was found to support the significant association between interdependent self-construal and pro-environmental attitude. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

The Impact of Seeking and Processing Environmental Information Related to Microplastics on Pro-environmental Behavior Intentions : Focusing on the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP)

The Impact of Seeking and Processing Environmental Information Related to Microplastics on Pro-environmental Behavior Intentions : Focusing on the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP)

Immersive storytelling for pro-environmental behaviour change: The Green Planet augmented reality experience

Immersive media is becoming more mainstream but its role in challenging social norms and individuals’ behaviours is less understood. We implemented a survey at The Green Planet Augmented Reality Experience, one of the largest immersive experiences in the United Kingdom, investigating the potential of nature-themed augmented reality (AR) experiences to encourage sustainability beliefs and pro-environmental behaviours, with a one-month follow-up. A video condition group was also recruited to watch a 2D screen-capture video of the AR experience. Results suggest that the AR group had increased in sustainability attitudes and pro-environmental behaviours after (vs. before) the experience, and this persisted at follow-up one month later. When compared to the video group, the AR group scored higher in sustainability beliefs immediately after engaging with the media (but did not differ in pro-environmental behavioural intentions). At a one-month follow-up, both groups appeared to have declined in sustainability beliefs and behaviours in comparison to immediately after media exposure (but were still greater when compared to before exposure). While the two groups did not differ in sustainability beliefs, AR visitors reported to have performed more pro-environmental behaviours in the month following the experience and even increased significantly more since before attending the experience when compared to those in the video condition. Finally, we built a model of cognitive mechanisms of longitudinal pro-environmental behaviour change by media, identifying the sense of presence and connection with nature as mechanisms through which immersive media can promote greater behaviour change when compared to traditional video media. Limitations and industry implications are discussed.

Exploring the drivers of pro-environmental behavioral intentions in an emerging nation

PurposeDrawing on the theory of planned behavior and value-belief norms theory, this study aims to explore the causes of pro-environmental behavioral intentions in the context of Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachData were garnered from 503 subjects with the aid of self-reported questionnaires. The formulated hypotheses were examined using a variance-based statistical approach (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe findings of the study revealed that personal values, particularly altruistic and biosphere values, significantly strengthen the psychological drivers of pro-environmental behavioral intentions. The study further found that religiosity enhances the association between personal norms and pro-environmental behavioral intentions and the place attachment augments the relationship between attitude and pro-environmental behavioral intentions.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that instilling altruistic and biosphere values in individuals can boost pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Campaigns and educational programs could focus on instilling these values to foster responsibility and empathy. Recognizing the influence of religiosity on pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes, this study suggests collaborative efforts between organizations and religious institutions. Religious leaders can integrate environmental stewardship into teachings, emphasizing ethical responsibilities.Originality/valueThe study pushes back the frontiers of environmental consciousness literature by highlighting the importance of personal values, psychological factors and contextual variables such as religiosity and place attachment in fostering pro-environmental behavior within the specific context of an emerging country – Sri Lanka.

Can environmental science popularization of tourism live streaming stimulate potential tourists’ pro-environmental behavior intentions? A construal level theory analysis

The updated iteration of social media provides new possibilities for mitigating environmental problems. To further clarify the environmental value of emerging social media, based on the construal level theory, this study investigated the tourism live streaming of environmental science popular, with presence as a boundary condition. This study constructed a theoretical model of the influence of the streamer interpretation service on the pro-environmental behavior intentions of potential tourists. After conducting a linear regression analysis on 428 randomly sampled questionnaires, it was found that: streamer interpretation service can not only directly stimulate pro-environmental behavior intentions, but also indirectly stimulate pro-environmental behavior intentions through psychological proximity which encompasses cognitive proximity and emotional proximity. Presence can enhance the influence of the streamer interpretation service on psychological proximity, and ultimately affect the pro-environmental behavior intentions. The research results enrich the research on the relationship between emerging social media and potential tourists' pro-environmental behavior.

Virtual Environment, Real Impacts: A Self-determination Perspective on the use of Virtual Reality for Pro-environmental Behavior Interventions

ABSTRACT Plastic waste is a serious environmental problem worldwide. Effective environmental communication is key to mobilizing the public to adopt pro-environmental behaviors for reducing plastic waste. While virtual reality (VR) is proposed as a viable tool that could overcome several challenges facing environmental communication, certain limitations exist in the extant literature, making it unclear whether it is the modality of VR itself, rather than some extraneous factor, that accounts for pro-environmental outcomes. Hence, adopting a between-subjects experimental design, this study improves on past research by comparing the efficacy of a VR game with an equivalent computerized quiz in increasing participants’ pro-environmental behavioral intention. Our results indicate that VR (vs. computerized quiz) has a comparative advantage for increasing participants’ behavioral intention to learn about plastic waste (BIL). Furthermore, guided by the self-determination theory, we find that perceived autonomy and autonomous motivation serve as serial mediators in the relationship between modality and BIL. Key Policy Highlights Policymakers could adopt VR technologies to increase public members’ interest in learning about environmental issues. In designing pro-environmental behavioral interventions, policymakers should focus on facilitating individuals’ autonomous motivation by giving them a sense of control.

내집단 동일시 차원이 친환경 행동의도에 미치는 영향 :집단효능감의 매개효과

내집단 동일시 차원이 친환경 행동의도에 미치는 영향 :집단효능감의 매개효과