Dreijerink Lieke, Handgraaf Michel, Antonides Gerrit
Energy Transition Studies, TNO, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Urban Economics Chairgroup, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 11;13:977471. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.977471. eCollection 2022.
In order to minimize climate change it is important that people take up a sustainable lifestyle. Sustainable lifestyles call for pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in several domains, such as in-home energy use, mobility, and consumption of food and goods. However, studies show that people often do not consistently behave pro-environmentally in all domains. In this study we investigated how a combination of personal motivation, and the difficulty and the perceived effort of a PEB, predicts the performance of PEBs in various domains, using a survey ( = 1,536). By means of Rasch analysis we identified the difficulty of 17 PEBs and estimated respondents' pro-environmental motivations. In addition, we investigated if performance of certain PEBs increased the probability of performing other PEBs. This way we could identify for each level of motivation which behaviors respondents were (probably) performing and which behaviors they did not yet perform, but would be least effortful new behaviors. Furthermore, using a non-recursive structural equation model we investigated the relations between perceived effort, PEB performance, motivation, underlying traits, and demographics. Results showed a feedback loop between motivation and perceived effort: when respondents were motivated they perceived behaviors as less effortful and also lower perception of effort was related to higher motivation. Our results imply that people mainly perform PEBs that fit their level of pro-environmental motivation and that they are inclined to do the things of which they can justify the effort they need to invest. This amount of effort seems quite similar for people: no one wants to invest too much effort, but people highly differ in how effortful they assess different behaviors. Our study thus indicates that rationalizations play a key role. Encouraging people to embrace more sustainable lifestyles may involve step-by-step increases in PEB performance. We propose that people should be encouraged to perform behaviors that are closest to their current motivation level in order for them to progress from performing easy to more difficult PEBs.
为了将气候变化降至最低，人们采取可持续的生活方式非常重要。可持续的生活方式要求在多个领域采取有利于环境的行为（PEB），例如家庭能源使用、出行以及食品和商品消费等领域。然而，研究表明，人们在所有领域的行为往往并不总是有利于环境的。在本研究中，我们通过一项调查（n = 1536），探究了个人动机、PEB的难度和感知努力程度的组合如何预测不同领域中PEB的表现。通过拉施分析，我们确定了17种PEB的难度，并估计了受访者的环保动机。此外，我们还研究了某些PEB的表现是否会增加执行其他PEB的可能性。通过这种方式，我们可以确定在每个动机水平上，受访者（可能）正在执行哪些行为，以及他们尚未执行但将是最省力的新行为。此外，我们使用非递归结构方程模型研究了感知努力、PEB表现、动机、潜在特质和人口统计学之间的关系。结果显示动机和感知努力之间存在反馈回路：当受访者有动机时，他们会觉得行为更省力，而较低的努力感知也与较高的动机相关。我们的研究结果表明，人们主要执行与其环保动机水平相匹配的PEB，并且他们倾向于做那些能够证明自己需要投入的努力是合理的事情。人们所需投入的努力程度似乎相当相似：没有人愿意投入过多努力，但人们对不同行为的努力程度评估差异很大。因此，我们的研究表明合理化起着关键作用。鼓励人们接受更可持续的生活方式可能需要逐步提高PEB的表现。我们建议应该鼓励人们执行最接近他们当前动机水平的行为，以便他们从执行简单的PEB过渡到执行更困难的PEB。
