Pro-environmental Values Research Articles

Behavioral barriers impede pro-environmental decision-making: Experimental evidence from incentivized laboratory and vignette studies

Despite increasing concerns about climate change, many people struggle to translate their pro-environmental values into action. Here, we explore the origins of this value-action gap focusing on the role of behavioral barriers that are characteristic for many environmentally relevant decisions. Using incentivized online laboratory and vignette experiments, we find that individuals are less likely to behave in accordance with their environmental values if they are not immediately affected by the consequences of their actions, if the impacts of their actions are uncertain, and if they contribute only marginally to the outcome. The behavioral barriers also exert an indirect effect on environmental behavior by undermining reciprocity and positive peer effects. The value-action gaps are correlated across the different experimental settings with men and younger participants showing a particularly large gap. These insights are important for climate communication and education, highlighting the important role of the perceived relevance and potential consequences of personal behaviors in collective action.

How to Design Green Compensation to Promote Managers’ Pro-Environmental Behavior? A Goal-Framing Perspective

AbstractHuman resource management (HRM) scholars and practitioners are increasingly interested in how to leverage HRM tools to address pressing environmental issues while balancing an organization’s need for profit. One important theme of this line of research is the use of contingent compensation (i.e., green compensation) to motivate managers to engage in pro-environmental behavior. However, current research on the efficacy of green compensation in promoting managers’ environmental contribution yields two seemingly contradictory views. First, based on agency theory, green compensation is found to be an effective tool to elicit managers’ environmental efforts. On the other hand, from a stewardship theory perspective, green compensation is regarded as ineffective in attempts to stimulate managers’ environmental contributions. In this paper, we propose that this potential conflict could stem from the way green compensation is designed. To address this issue, drawing upon goal-framing theory, we develop a normative theoretical framework toward designing key features of green compensation that could help to promote managers’ pro-environmental behaviors while mitigating potential pitfalls. These key features include explicitly acknowledging managers’ contributions to environmental endeavors, distribution of the compensation by prominent stakeholders with salient pro-environmental values, distribution of the compensation in public ceremonies, ensuring modesty in size of the compensation compared with managers’ non-contingent compensation, monitoring outcome and process performance, and developing group-based in addition to individual-based compensation. We conclude with implications of this design for theory and practice.

Addressing ecoparalysis: a community-engaged unit enhances undergraduate student environmental value and problem-solving self-efficacy

Undergraduates often express that they feel powerless to help solve important challenges such as climate change and environmental degradation, consistent with the broader phenomena of ecoparalysis. Viewed through value-expectancy frameworks for motivation, value for an outcome and self-efficacy to achieve it lead to goals, which motivate engagement. This study evaluates the impact of a community-engaged course unit, versus a unit without a community-engaged component, in a general-education university environmental science course in the United States on student expressions of environmental value, self-efficacy, and goals. Qualitative analysis of written reflections reveals enhancements in students’ pro-environmental values, environmental problem-solving self-efficacy, and environmentally-related goals. Paired quantitative analysis comparing code frequencies in reflections (n = 37) show statistically significant enhancements in environmental value (p = .00013, Cohen’s d = 0.930) and self-efficacy (p = .00082, d = 0.807). These outcomes suggest community-engaged coursework can help reduce students’ ecoparalysis and motivate them to engage in pro-environmental action beyond the bounds of the course.

Impact of perceived value in virtual brand communities on purchase intention of domestic electric vehicles

The consumption value seems to be insufficient to explain consumers' domestic electric vehicle purchase behaviour, especially in a highly competitive global environment. This study aims to investigate how consumer ethnocentrism and perceived interactivity influence consumption value and pro-environmental value, subsequently affecting attitude and intention. A total of 353 valid questionnaires were collected through convenience sampling in Xuzhou, China, and the partial least square (PLS) path modelling approach was performed to test the hypotheses. The results show that consumer ethnocentrism and perceived interactivity positively influence function value, emotional value, and social value; perceived interactivity also positively influences altruistic value, biospheric value, and collectivistic value. Function value, social value, and collectivistic value positively influence attitude; however, emotional value, altruistic value and biospheric value did not find a correlation with attitude. Furthermore, attitude positively influences intention to adopt domestic electric vehicles. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations were discussed accordingly.

Blue and red tides in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: Examining political and environmental framings of collective action during the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Watersheds require collective care and management at local and regional levels to maintain their ecological health. The Chesapeake Bay's last several decades of stagnantly poor ecological health presents a distinctive case study for explicating the challenges of motivating collective action across a diverse regional natural resource. Our study uses county- and individual-level descriptive analysis to examine interrelated framings of environmental quality, environmental sentiment, and political action at two critical moments in time-the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. We find that demographic, environmental, and political characteristics vary with distance to the Chesapeake Bay and that linked environmental and political characteristics appeared to become more polarized between 2016 and 2020. We found no evidence that local environmental quality influenced new political actions such as voting; however, people already likely to vote were influenced by their pro-environmental values such as priorities around climate change.

Tourist Values and Well-Being in Rural Tourism: Insights from Biodiversity Protection and Rational Automobile Use in Al-Ahsa Oasis, Saudi Arabia

In response to the escalating significance of sustainable tourism and the growing global concern for environmental conservation, the current study sought to investigate the intricate dynamics of two pro-environmental behaviors (biodiversity protection and rational car use), personal values (altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic), farm tourists’ well-being, and environmental and activity attachment among farm tourists in the Al-Ahsa region of Saudi Arabia. Employing an online survey, our methodology involved partial least structural equation modeling to unravel the complex relationships among these variables. Based on responses retrieved from 309 farm tourists, results revealed that biodiversity protection significantly influenced altruistic values and the well-being of farm tourists. Additionally, rational automobile use exerted positive impacts on both altruistic and biospheric values. These results underscore the intricate dynamics shaping tourists’ attitudes and experiences in the Al-Ahsa region. The study contributes to the broader understanding of sustainable tourism practices, emphasizing the need for tailored interventions. The positive associations identified highlight the potential for farm tourism experiences to enhance both pro-environmental values and the well-being of tourists, thus offering valuable insights for future research and sustainable tourism initiatives.

Language Building Nature: Ecolinguistic Framing Analysis on The Environmental Conservation Hashtag @Griya_Luhu

Language is not just a means of communication, but a force that shapes our perspective and behavior towards the environment. In the digital era, social media has become an important platform for environmental conservation campaigns, with hashtags (#hashtag) functioning as frames that direct meaning and mobilize action. This research examines how the Instagram account @griya_Luhu uses hashtags to campaign for environmental issues. Through ecolinguistic framing analysis of popular hashtags used, this research reveals @griya_Luhu's strategy in: Framing environmental problems and solutions, defining individual and collective roles, and promoting pro-environmental values. The research results show that @griya_luhu effectively simplifies complex issues, encourages real action, and builds collective awareness. However, some potential biases and simplifications need to be criticized. This research underscores the importance of language analysis in examining the effectiveness of environmental campaigns on social media and provides an analytical framework for future similar research.conservation. Keywords Enviromental Conservation Hasthag, Framing, Ecolinguistic.

Who teaches place-based education: identifying relationships between environmental value orientation and pedagogical values

Place-based education (PBE) offers teachers a unique opportunity to increase engagement and academic outcomes while strengthening students’ connections to their environment and inspiring future conservation. In most instances, classroom teachers must independently choose to implement PBE, such as when discussing topics surrounding wildlife and the environment. Environmental values orientations of teachers may explain teachers’ implementation of PBE. Through thematic analysis of phenomenological interviews with 11 middle and high school science teachers in Colorado we identified their environmental value orientations. We found that teachers with predominantly mutualist environmental value orientations were associated with high levels of implementation. Our findings can inform professional development of teachers learning about the relationship between PBE and pro-environmental value ­orientations and behaviors among future generations.

Barriers to environmental education in Ethiopia: do they differ from a global analysis?

Environmental education in primary schools plays a critical role in fostering pro-environmental values and behavior among young children. However, multiple contextual barriers hinder the teaching of environmental issues in schools. Drawing on the evident gap observed in Ethiopian primary teachers’ beliefs and actual practices, the study elucidates the major barriers teachers encounter in teaching environmental issues. Interviews, grounded in phenomenology, were conducted with teachers in four primary schools. The analysis outlined four ranked categories: training and capacity, administrative and logistical, safety concerns, and attitudinal. Most teachers feel hindered by their lack of pedagogical knowledge for teaching children. While most of the barriers are common in global analyses, the current study also identified noble barriers. Suggestions for tackling the barriers and areas for further inquiry are discussed.

Targeted information intervention among consumer clusters for electric vehicle penetration – A case study of Punjab, India

Low success rates of existing EV adoption policies in India highlight the need for targeted policies to boost EV adoption. The current study employs a single-arm information intervention to analyse the impact of information provision on electric vehicle (EV) adoption among consumer clusters in a developing country context. Using Gaussian Mixed Modelling clustering, the sample was grouped into four segments based on three psychological latent variables. Clusters with greater pro-environmental values had higher pre-intervention positive purchase intention, signifying that policies aimed at promoting EVs among environmentally conscious consumers have higher chances of success. The intervention showed significant desirable changes in every cluster. Results indicate that such campaigns would achieve higher success in consumer clusters with low eco-friendliness. Appropriate measures for each cluster are suggested. The characteristics of consumer clusters with higher pre-intervention purchase intention could serve as guidelines for businesses and governments while formulating new and updating their existing EV policies.

The Drivers of Green Brand Evangelism: The Mediation Role of Green Brand Experience

Objective: While environmentally friendly products and brands are widely available, consumer adoption and usage of these products remain relatively low, highlighting disconnection between pro-environmental values and actual green practices related to green brand. This discrepancy is attributed to biased perceptions toward green brands. This study aims to address the perception bias issue in the relationship between pro-environmental values and behaviors, focusing on green personal care brands. Theoretical framework: Based on Stimulus Organism Response theory combined with Self-Verification Theory, Consumer Culture Theory and Social Exchange theory, this study proposes that individual factors such as Environmental Self-Identity and brand related factors such as Self-Green Brand Connection, Brand Trust, and Green Brand Experience play crucial roles in influencing Green Brand Evangelism with Green Brand Experience acting as a mediator in these relationships. . Method: Utilizing a non-probability purposive sampling approach, data was collected from 404 respondents through an online questionnaire using a 1-7 Likert scale. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method was employed for data analysis. Results and conclusion: The findings of this research indicate that Green Brand Experience significantly mediates the impact of Environmental Self-Identity, Self-Green Brand Connection, and Brand Trust, on Green Brand Evangelism. This study represents a pioneering effort in examining the influence of Environmental Self-Identity on Green Brand Experience and Green Brand Evangelism. And the first attempt in investigating the mediating role of Green Brand Experience in shaping Green Brand Evangelism. This research contributes to a better understanding of how social-constructed green brand experiences can foster Green Brand Evangelism among consumers.

“I am not unsustainable; I am on holiday!” moral disengagement and the holiday mindset of young travellers during a cruise

Tourists often fail to follow through with their sustainable behaviour intentions. This lack of compliance can only truly be explored by observing their actions when immersed in the context of a vacation. A holistic case study was conducted by monitoring a group of young consumers on a cruise. Five quantitative and qualitative methods (i.e. baggage audit, participant observation, photo elicitation, diary and introspection) have been employed to collect rich and diverse data on young tourists’ behaviours. This allowed to complement behavioural measures with young tourist lived experiences, overcoming the limitations of self-reported measures. The findings suggest that young tourists do not always behave sustainably while on a cruise, and they morally disengage from such behaviours to deal with those choices. Eleven macro-categories of (un)sustainable behaviours have been observed and identified before, during and after the cruise. The findings also highlight the emergence of four coping mechanisms that allow young tourists to disengage from the unsustainable behaviour and overcome the discrepancy between their pro-environmental values and behaviours. Managers in the tourism industry need to find communication strategies that appeal to the sense of responsibility of a tourist even before the journey and highlight a hedonic dimension to sustainable behaviours.

Reducing Shower Duration in Tourist Accommodations: A Covert True Experiment of Continuous Real-Time Eco-Feedback and Persuasive Messaging

This study inductively applies the Feedback Intervention Theory by empirically demonstrating the effectiveness of continuous, real-time eco-feedback and its interaction with motivational factors in modifying showering behavior. We conducted a covert true experiment across six tourist accommodations in Denmark, Spain, and the UK, where we deployed smart technology, in the form of a timer to provide the eco-feedback, coupled with persuasive messages. Data from over 17,500 showers showed that continuous, real-time eco-feedback reduced water runtime by 25.79% ( CI = 8.24%; 39.98%). When the eco-feedback was paired with the most effective message—priming pro-environmental values and requiring a high effort to comply—water runtime was reduced by 23.55% ( CI = 17.53%; 29.13%). The study’s robust experimental design, and its emphasis on actual behavior measurement, highlight the potential of smart technology to facilitate resource conservation.

Do immigrants support environmentalism? – Immigrants’ environmental socialization in the United States

As globalisation continues, heated debates over immigrants’ environmental behaviours in the U.S. have been prominent in recent years. While research has generally focused on the association between political affiliation and pro-environmental values, only a few studies have specifically explored immigrants’ pro-environmental values in the U.S. Utilizing a pooled dataset spanning 3 years (2017, 2020, and 2022) from the Cooperative Election Study and employing a multilevel model, we empirically tested three hypotheses regarding immigrants’ pro-environmental attitudes: the globalization hypothesis, the prosperity hypothesis, and the political socialization hypothesis. Our results supported all three hypotheses. On average, immigrants exhibited higher environmental scores than the native-born population. In addition, we identified generational differences, with the 1st generation immigrants showing the highest environmental scores, while the 2nd generation immigrants fell between the 1st generation and the native-born. Compared to the native-born population, party affiliation played a smaller role in immigrants’ formation of pro-environmental values. Democratic immigrants tended to be less pro-environment than democratic locals, while Republican immigrants were more pro-environment than Republican locals.

Impact of pro-environmental values on sustainable green apparel buying behavior in Pakistan

The face of earth is disturbed because of never ending pollutants from different sources including textile waste. Some consumers propagate that they are eco-conscious, but their intention does not translate well into their actions. The aim of present study is to identify the impact of pro-environmental values on green-purchase-behavior through the mediating role of green buying intentions and the moderating role of willingness-to-pay. And for this purpose, data were gathered through convenience sampling technique via self-administered questionnaire from 320 students that enrolled in different universities of Pakistan. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used for analysing the data through AMOS. Results revealed that consumers are aware of environmental degradation and think of themselves as contributors towards preventing pollution by buying sustainable clothing. They don't consider price as hurdle between thought processes and the final buying decision. Moreover, willingness to pay had insignificant influence on the association among intention and behavior of green purchase. This research offers more insights for marketing managers, textile firms, policy makers, and students of marketing to look deeper into the gap between intent and behaviour towards green apparel buying.

Students’ Sustainable Entrepreneurship Intentions: The Role of Sustainable Values and Culture

Sustainable values have been enforced in societies, given individuals’ awareness of the societal challenges faced by current and future generations. Building upon the theory of planned behaviour and the value literature, this article examines whether and how sustainable values, specifically pro-environmental and solidarity values, influence sustainable entrepreneurial intentions in two different cultural contexts: Ecuador and Germany. About 297 university students were recruited to test the hypotheses. The findings reveal cultural differences in how sustainable values are associated with the behavioural mechanism that leads to sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. Surprisingly, pro-environmental values are not related to the behavioural mechanism that leads to sustainable entrepreneurial intentions in either Germany or Ecuador, whereas the solidarity values—sustainable entrepreneurial intentions relationship is fully mediated by behavioural mechanisms in Ecuador, and in Germany, the attitude towards sustainable entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control towards sustainability partially mediate this relationship. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextualising entrepreneurial intentions in the context of sustainable entrepreneurship.

Green preferences sustain greenwashing: challenges in the cultural transition to a sustainable future.

Discussions of the environmental impact that revolve around monetary incentives and other easy-to-measure factors are important, but they neglect culture. Pro-environmental values will be crucial when facing sustainability challenges in the Anthropocene, and demand among green consumers is arguably critical to incentivise sustainable production. However, owing to asymmetric information, consumers might not know whether the premium they pay for green production is well-spent. Reliable monitoring of manufacturers is meant to solve this problem. To see how this might work, we develop and analyse a game theoretic model of a simple buyer-seller exchange with asymmetric information, and our analysis shows that greenwashing can exist exactly because reliable monitoring co-exists with unreliable monitoring. More broadly, promoting pro-environmental values among consumers might even amplify the problem at times because a manufacturer with significant market power can exploit both consumer preferences for sustainability and trustworthy monitoring to gouge prices and in extreme cases green wash in plain sight. We discuss several strategies to address this problem. Promoting accurate beliefs and a large-scale behavioural change based on pro-environmental values might be necessary for a rapid transition to a sustainable future, but recent evidence from the cultural evolution literature highlights many important challenges. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.

A Comparative Study of the Human-Nature Relationship in The Fate of Fausto and I’ll Sow My Hands in the Garden

AbstractThis article contends that the representation of human-nature relationship in children’s literature can map onto its gender politics through a comparative study of multimodal dynamics of Irish and Persian picturebooks. It builds upon the premise that children’s literature can play a significant role in sustainable education and forming pro-environmental values in the process of socialization during childhood. Oliver Jeffers’ The Fate of Fausto: A Painted Fable (2019) and Hoda Hadadi’s I’ll Sow My Hands in the Garden (2020) are examined within the framework of environmental humanities for their verbal and pictorial depictions of the human-nature relationship. The findings convey that characters’ gender and sexual identities can impact their interactions with nature; at the same time, nature can clear a space for expressing and affirming underrepresented and historically marginalized gender and sexual identities in children’s literature through creative and dynamic multimodal interactions between the text and illustrations. A comparative analysis reveals that Jeffers challenges abstract, absolute masculinity and masculine arrogance and calls for reforming the notion of need in modern societies, while more playful and transgressive dynamics between the text and illustrations provide an effective tool for Hadadi who appropriates the poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad, a maverick female writer, to undermine the plots of male homo-sociality and erotic counterplotting with a subversive alternative to heteropatriarchy and anthropocentrism.

Pro-environmental values’ and consumer behavior in base of the pyramid market: Ghana

PurposeThis study aims to fill the gap on proenvironmental behavior studies among consumers in bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market by examining the relationship between values, beliefs and norms among Ghanaian consumers.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 324 Ghanaian consumers (responses rate of 64%) was used to estimate the model. The data was analyzed using maximum likelihood robust approach of Lavaan package for structural equation modeling in R.FindingsThe findings show that there is no significant relationship between values and the new ecological worldview, which also does not affect awareness of environmental consequences. However, awareness of consequences, likely based on personal experiences, significantly impacts perceived ability to reduce threats to the environment. Ghanaian consumers are mainly influenced by personal experiences with local environmental consequences that affect their perceived ability to reduce threats to their environment and their willingness to engage in proenvironmental behavior. The study supports the argument that proenvironmental behavior is the result of complex decision-making that might be influenced by a country’s economic situation, infrastructure, culture and institutions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on a single country in Africa. More studies are needed among other base of the pyramid countries, and in comparison to developed countries’ consumers.Originality/valueThe study adds to the limited knowledge regarding sustainable consumption in the neglected context of the bottom of the pyramid market.

Balancing benefits and risks: Assessing willingness to accept compensation for clean energy facility siting in China-An examination of knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Provisions for compensation have been widely used to handle siting difficulties in many countries. However, neglecting the factors that influence the residents' willingness to accept compensation (WTA) for the siting of clean energy facilities for the long term has led to the failure of compensation, which could potentially cause stalemates or even conflicts in projects. Given the representativeness of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the siting of clean energy facilities, this study chose the siting of NPPs as a case study. Moreover, an extended knowledge-attitudes-practices (KAP) model was constructed to explore the key factors that affect the residents' WTA since this model excels at understanding individual behaviors. The results show that the WTA is extremely low. Knowledge has positive effects on attitudes, which is also the most significant predictive factor of the WTA. More knowledge leads to lower pollution perceptions but results in higher safety perceptions and pro-environmental values. Perceptions of safety and pollution mediate the relationship between knowledge and the WTA, but the mediating effects of pro-environmental values are not significant. The negative effects of pollution perceptions are greater than the positive effects of safety perceptions of WTA. These results may serve as a basis to improve public evaluation to handle crises in other countries and regions.