Using the action-based model of dissonance (Harmon-Jones, Amodio, & Harmon-Jones, 2009) and self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008) as theoretical frameworks, this thesis sought to explain the motivational processes underlying the environmental belief-action gap. The thesis examined why and how people resolve inconsistencies between their favourable attitudes toward environmental protection and their environmentally harmful behaviour. I hypothesized that accounting for individual differences in autonomous and controlled distal motives for effective and unconflicted action would clarify why attitude-behaviour inconsistencies are uncomfortable and explain how people compensate for them. I carried out 3 sets of studies to test the proposed hierarchical action-based model of inconsistency compensation in the environmental domain (HABICE). The objective of the first set of 3 studies was to test hypotheses about the role of individual differences in global and contextual motivation on dissonance arousal, in response to native attitude-behaviour inconsistencies encountered across and within important life domains. The second set of 3 studies tested hypotheses about the role of individual differences in contextual motivation toward the environment on the use and choice of strategies to compensate for a recent native inconsistency in the environmental domain. Finally, the goal of the final study was to test hypotheses about the moderating effect of social factors that direct attention to public (ego-invested) versus private (authentic) aspects of the self during the perception of inconsistencies on motivation and intentions to revise pro-global warming mitigation attitudes. The results of the 7 studies (total N = 2,209) supported the main predictions of the HABICE. The cumulative evidence supported the existence of two motivational orientations operating during inconsistency compensation processes. The autonomous motivational orientation, which embodies action tendencies to facilitate organismic integration via authentic regulation, motivated people to compensate for attitude-behaviour inconsistencies to restore the integrity of authentic self-structures. As a result, autonomous motivation toward the environment led people to reduce dissonance and to compensate for perceived inconsistencies by bringing their behaviour in line with self-relevant attitudes. The controlled motivational orientation, which embodies action tendencies to facilitate instrumental outcomes via contingent regulation, motivated people to compensate for attitude-behaviour inconsistencies to protect ego-invested self-structures by avoiding the aversive consequences of their counter-environmental actions. When inconsistencies aroused dissonance, controlled motivation predicted the use of overt behavioural strategies, for example enacting a compensatory pro-environmental action, to reduce dissonance. However, when inconsistencies did not arouse dissonance or there were barriers to behaviour change, controlled motivation predicted the use of cognitive strategies, for example revising or distorting pro-environmental attitudes, to minimize the inconsistency. Consequently, autonomous compensation processes predicted relatively infrequent attitude-behaviour inconsistencies in the environmental domain while controlled compensation processes predicted relatively frequent inconsistencies. The results imply that controlled motivation toward the environment may be driving the environmental belief-action gap, but that finding ways to promote autonomous motivation toward the environment in the general population has the potential to alleviate the gap.

Dans un contexte de préoccupation croissante pour le défi environnemental, l'objectif de cette thèse est d'apporter quelques pistes de réflexion sur les liens entre incitations et les préférences sociales dans un contexte de choix impliquant des conséquences environnementales. Le chapitre 1 constitue une introduction générale au contexte de notre _étude. Le chapitre 2 vise à fournir un aperçu de la recherche expérimentale étudiant le comportement environnemental dans les disciplines de l'_économie et la psychologie expérimentales. Grâce à un inventaire thématique bibliographique des expériences publiées, nous indentions les principaux déterminants du comportement pro-environnemental et nous décrivons l'évolution de ces études au fil du temps. Le chapitre 3 adapte un jeu de bien public (PGG) à la question de la gestion des déchets. Poursuivant le but de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, les décideurs conçoivent différents types d'incitations pour agir sur les comportements individuels. Dans notre expérience, les acteurs doivent coopérer afin de réduire le coût du traitement du tri des déchets, ce dernier modélisé au moyen d'un taux d'imposition variable. Les résultats montrent que le conseil, la sanction et la menace de sanction augmentent considérablement la coopération, avec un effet disciplinant plus fort pour la sanction. Le chapitre 4 considère la nature de l'expression des préférences des individus. Ce chapitre étudie la relation entre les préférences sociales et la contribution attentionnelle dans un environnement pro-social. A cette fin, nous présentons une nouvelle expérience où les sujets investissent une réelle attention pour exprimer leurs préférences, puis nous comparons une incitation du type égoïste à une autre pro-sociale. Les résultats montrent que les deux incitations augmentent l'attention accordée. De plus, contrairement aux enseignements de la théorie économique standard, nous trouvons que les préférences sociales des sujets n'expliquent pas la contribution attentionnelle dans un environnement pro-social. / In the context of growing concern for the environmental challenge, the objective of this thesis is to bring some insights on possible links between incentives, social preferences and the environmental context. Chapter 1 is a general introduction. Chapter 2 provides a survey of the experimental research disciplines studying Pro-Environmental Behavior both in the discipline of Economics and Psychology. Thanks to a thematic inventory of the published experiments, we identify the main determinants of Pro-Environmental Behaviors investigated in economics and psychology. Moreover, we provide a statistical description of studies evolution in time. Chapter 3 adapts a public good game to waste management issue. In the context of greenhouse gases emissions reduction, policy makers design different types of incentives to act on individual behaviors. In the experiment, the players have to cooperate in order to reduce the cost of waste sorting treatment. We compare the impact of a sanctioning tax with the impact of a nudge in the form of a third party advice. Results show that advice, sanction and the threat of sanction significantly increase cooperation, with a stronger disciplinary effect for the applied sanction. Chapter 4 considers the nature of individuals' preferences expression, namely a monetary salient effort and an attentional effort. In this chapter we investigate the relation between social preferences and attentional contribution in a pro-social environment. For this purpose, we present a new experiment where subjects have to invest real attention, then we compare a selfish and prosocial incentives. The results show that both incentives increase allocated attention. Moreover, in contradiction with economic theory, we find that subjects' social preferences failed to explain attentional contribution in pro-social environments.

No description available.

Considering current urban challenges within the United States, the stewardship of massive, unsustainable living and consumption, collaborative cohousing communities appear to hold substantial potential as agents of change delivering sustainable-oriented lifestyles. This research examines the internal drives that intervene in adopting environmentally friendly habits and explores how they are facilitated inside this type of residence. In order to observe the benefits and limitations of this type of degrowth-oriented housing, this study covers the transformative learning experiences within cohousing residents through the conduction of semi-structured interviews as the primary method. For this research, two cohousing communities have been selected in the states of Vermont and Iowa.  Throughout the study, different drives associated with the attainment of sustainable environments have been identified. Among them, we find drives connected to the built space and the social organisation of the communities. Emphasis is also given to the internal strategies by which these drives intervene in the materialisation of environmentally friendly lifestyles. The study points out those drives that deem cohousing a beneficial tool to challenge existing economic norms and social paradigms. This study can serve as the basis for further research exploring the possibilities of considering the depicted drives as guiding models for sustainable living among more traditional forms of housing.

No description available.

The environmental and climate-related sustainability challenges facing the world today are complex, accelerating and urgent, and they call for change from multiple stake­hol­ders. While govern­ments, busi­nes­ses and other insti­tutions hold a high degree of responsibility for initia­ting and enabling the neces­sary change processes towards sustainable practices, so do also individuals and com­munities. Despite inno­va­tive change projects worldwide much remains to be done. However, making changes is difficult for many people, and even more so in situations characterised by uncertainty. In this study the role of future-oriented ima­gination in motivating changes towards sustainable lifestyles was explored through an experimental intervention design. Test group participants were exposed to a guided imagination of a sustainability scenario in the year 2028, followed by a writing assignment allowing them time to en­ga­ge with how they see their own future life. The control group spent the same amount of time listening to a guided present-day reflection and writing about their current everyday life. Pre- and post-intervention, both groups comp­leted lifestyle question­naires. The pre­-­­inter­­vention ques­tion­naire constituted the baseline assessment against which their post-inter­ven­tion questionnaire results (which was asking both groups to record the lifestyle decisions they thought they would be making in the year 2028 on the same behaviours as in the pre-intervention questionnaire) were compared to check for reported degrees of changes. Besides their expected lifestyle changes, their predicted future personal change and degree of pro-environmental self-identity in the year 2028 was measured. The results show that test group participants, who were exposed to the future-oriented imagination, reported a substantially higher degree of future lifestyle changes and future pro-environ­mental self-identity than the control group, as well as predicting a higher degree of future personal change. Future-oriented imagination seems to be a potent pathway for eliciting future-oriented sustainability enga­ge­ment while avoiding some of the risks of negative spillover. This suggests that future-oriented imagination can play an important role in developing motivation for sustainable lifestyle changes, and that it can be a complement to other psychological drivers for pro-environmental behaviours.

Consumption is a major contributor to environmental harm, and also one area where the Swedish performance is in urgent need of improvement. While it is well known that changes are needed on all societal levels for sustainability to be realized, it is unclear whether the population is aware of which changes that refers to, since the impacts from individual consumption remain high. Previous research has identified psychological, cultural, social, and economic determinants as barriers to change, however, removing those barriers will not be sufficient if it results in changes entailing only marginal environmental benefits. The question that initiated this research is whether common people in Sweden can identify which changes are efficient enough to provide visible results, or if the current environmental discourse generates misperceptions, hindering concrete change. Meeting the objective to contribute to the identification of obstacles to sustainability by studying the perception of pro-environmental consumption among potential adopters, a qualitative interview-based case study was conducted on students at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. The research followed an abductive approach, whereby primarily the Diffusion of Innovations theory was used for structure and interpretation. The findings reveal several barriers to sustainability associated with individual perceptions, including perceptions of the concept of pro-environmental consumption as complex, a perceived lack of trustworthy information from authorities, a perceived abundance of misleading information from profit-driven actors, as well as some controversy on where to place responsibility. Alongside this, misperceptions of environmental impacts from consumption were revealed, whereby accurate perceptions and environmental education were somewhat correlated. While highlighting an unrecognized but concrete issue, this research involves a small sample, suggesting that further research is required.

Thesis (M.Com. (Business Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The primary objective of the study was to examine the effect of values (biospheric values, altruistic values, egoistic values and openness to change values) on voluntary pro-environmental behaviour of employees of SMMEs.In addition, the study investigated the moderating effect of demographic variables (gender, age and level of education) in the relationship between values and pro-environmental behaviour. The quantitative approach was utilised and the cross-sectional survey method was used to collect data from the respondents that were conveniently sampled. The Cronbach’s alpha was used to measure reliability and the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS SEM) was utilised to analyse data. The findings of the study indicated that biospheric values has a negative relationship with employees’ voluntary proenvironmental behaviour. Three values (altruistic, egoistic and openness to change values) have significant positive relationships with voluntary pro-environmental behaviour of employees. The moderating effects of gender, age and level of education are insignificant. Recommendations on how to use values to improve the voluntary pro-environmental behaviour of employees of SMMEs are outlined.

Achieving the carbon emission reductions necessary to address climate change is proving challenging. Voluntary behaviour change by individuals has the potential to make a substantial contribution to decreasing carbon emissions, but generally that potential is not being realised. Group-based interventions, however, may offer an effective method for promoting significant and durable changes in pro-environmental behaviour leading to carbon reductions. This thesis evaluates Footpaths, a group-based programme designed and implemented by Transition Leicester and consisting of seven sessions. The study investigates the effectiveness of the programme, using a longitudinal mixed-methods approach to facilitate understanding of both measurable results and the processes leading to those results. The Reasonable Person Model (RPM) is used as a theoretical framework to aid understanding of the way in which group-based interventions may promote pro-environmental behaviour. Data were collected from participants just before and immediately after involvement with the Footpaths programme, as well as a year after the sessions commenced. Questionnaires were administered at all three times and semi-structured interviews were conducted after the last session. Participants also completed a carbon footprint calculator at all three times and provided data on measured energy use. Findings show that Footpaths participants reduced their carbon footprints by 15 percent over the course of the sessions, and continued to reduce their carbon footprints resulting in a 20 percent reduction over the course of a year. Pro-environmental behaviour increased, including increases in harder to change behaviours, and measured energy use decreased. Increases in pro-environmental behaviour and reductions in carbon footprint were associated with increased understanding, greater feelings of competence, and reduced confusion; all considered to be elements of a supportive informational environment. Participants highlighted the importance of having an opportunity to examine their own behaviour coupled with active engagement with information over a period of time. Neither feedback nor a desire for social contact were related to increases in pro-environmental behaviour. Pro-environmental behaviour was more closely associated with both worldview and attitude after participation in Footpaths possibly indicating a closer alignment between attitude and behaviour after participation. This research suggests that group-based interventions are effective in promoting significant and durable changes in pro-environmental behaviour and it provides interesting insight into the design of successful interventions to encourage such behaviour. Findings highlight the potential value of the RPM as an integrative framework for understanding the characteristics of interventions that successfully promote durable sustainable behaviours.

Communicating climate change and other long-term environmental issues to the wider public is a challenging process involving many barriers to action. Visualisations have the ability to overcome these barriers. Furthermore, the benefits of visual images over verbal information have been supported. However, there is a lack of research on how visual images can motivate behaviour. Based on Elaborated Intrusion theory, it is proposed that visual images can be internalised as mental images which can act as a ‘motivational bridge’ for pro-environmental behaviour. Six studies exposed participants to visual pro-environmental messages. Throughout all studies images were internalised as mental images, associated with intrusive thoughts. Consistently, mental images were strongly associated with pro-environmental goals and behaviour change (self-report and actual). Also, interfering with visual mental imagery, using cognitive tasks, reduced self-reported behaviour change (Study 6). Overall, two motivational roles of mental imagery emerged: mental images can trigger pro-environmental goals and can strengthen the relationship between pro-environmental goals and behaviour. The development, strength, and vividness of mental imagery depended on interacting individual and message characteristics. A vivid message was more effective when the message topic was relevant to the target individual (Study 2). Also, a message in line with existing values evoked more vivid mental imagery (Studies 2 to 6). A message could activate specific values as well if mental imagery was not interfered with (Study 5 and 6). And finally, positive and negative images were associated with different feelings, but could both be internalised and motivate behaviour (Study 3 and 6). A combined message could overcome the negative feelings associated with a fear appeal (Study 6). This thesis developed a theoretical framework, integrating approaches from social and cognitive psychology, which can help explain and predict responses to visual environmental messages. Six studies showed that the effect of a visual image on behaviour depends, among other factors, on its ability to trigger recurring mental imagery. Insights provide opportunities for designing evidence based visual pro-environmental messages. In turn this can maximise the impact visual messages have on changing people’s pro-environmental behaviour.