Why self-proclaimed environmentalists commit non sustainable behaviors?: Using normative motivation to understand personal attitudes and choices

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) N.J.), 2024, Vol.43 (2), p.1423-1436
• Main Authors: Kwan, Letty Y.-Y., Hung, Yu Sheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Environmental protection; Environmental sustainability; Environmentalists; Norms; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Public opinion; Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-023-04238-4

Our behaviors are often inconsistent with our attitudes. In the current Study, we took a norm approach to understand why car owners continue to use private cars despite their support for environmentalism. In an experience sampling study, a large representative sample of 610 commuters from a megacity participated in a 2-part study. In the first part, they completed measures of their pro-environmental attitudes and their beliefs about society’s perception of users using transportation types. After ten days, they recorded their commute behaviors on every trip they made over seven days (including a public holiday, four workdays, and a weekend). The results, which included recorded trips from 193 car owners, showed that car owners with strong pro-environmental attitudes used their cars more often when motivated by intersubjective norms. Interestingly, the results were reversed when car owners with strong pro-environmental attitudes were motivated by personal norms. The results concluded that pro-environmental attitudes alone could not predict pro-environment behaviors; instead, activating one’s norms or changing one’s perceived intersubjective norms are needed alongside strong pro-environmental attitudes to change one car driving behaviors.