Dreijerink Lieke, Handgraaf Michel, Antonides Gerrit
Urban Economics Chairgroup, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2021 May 17;12:583596. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.583596. eCollection 2021.
Ideally, pro-environmental consumer behavior leads to a lower impact on the environment. However, due to negative behavioral spillovers environmentally friendly behavior could lead to an overall higher environmental impact if subsequent environmentally unfriendly behavior occurs. In this exploratory interview study we focused on two pathways leading to negative spillover: a psychological path (perceived effort, moral licensing) and an economic path (rebound effects). We wanted to gain insight into people's motivations to behave environmentally unfriendly and to explore people's level of awareness of both pathways. Our results indicate that pro-environmental behaviors that are associated with higher effort are performed less frequently, and that when people do not perform these behaviors they associate them with higher effort levels. When people perceive behaviors as more effortful they increasingly seem to use arguments to motivate and rationalize why performing the behavior is difficult or impossible. Moreover, we found that although some people can imagine that moral licensing and rebound effects could occur and can provide examples from their own lives, most people assess these concepts as not rational. People seem unaware of the relation between a first pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and a subsequent behavior, and therefore inconsistencies in behavior go unnoticed. As people are good at rationalizing why they do not perform specific PEBs, they in general feel satisfied with their own pro-environmental actions. In order to discourage negative spillovers, we describe a number of approaches and research ideas aimed at taking away the grounds for rationalization.
理想情况下，亲环境的消费者行为对环境的影响较小。然而，由于负面行为溢出效应，如果随后出现不环保行为，环保行为可能会导致总体上更高的环境影响。在这项探索性访谈研究中，我们聚焦于导致负面溢出效应的两条途径：一条心理途径（感知努力、道德许可）和一条经济途径（反弹效应）。我们希望深入了解人们做出不环保行为的动机，并探究人们对这两条途径的认知程度。我们的研究结果表明，与更高努力程度相关的亲环境行为执行频率较低，而且当人们不执行这些行为时，他们会将其与更高的努力程度联系起来。当人们认为行为更费力时，他们似乎越来越多地使用论据来激励自己并为不执行该行为的困难或不可能性寻找合理化理由。此外，我们发现，尽管有些人能够想象道德许可和反弹效应可能会发生，并能从自己的生活中举例，但大多数人认为这些概念不合理。人们似乎没有意识到第一个亲环境行为（PEB）与后续行为之间的关系，因此行为上的不一致未被察觉。由于人们善于为自己不执行特定亲环境行为的原因进行合理化解释，他们总体上对自己的亲环境行为感到满意。为了抑制负面溢出效应，我们描述了一些旨在消除合理化理由的方法和研究思路。
