The apparel and textile industry plays an enormous role in the depletion of natural resources, pollution and other environmental problems. Pro-environmental efforts should thus be encouraged in all stages of the apparel supply chain, but also more specifically at the disposal stage during which consumers should be encouraged to adopt eco-friendly options such as donating, recycling and/ or reselling apparel. The aim of this study was to explore and describe female consumers' pro-environmental disposal motivation and intent regarding apparel in the South African context. The hypothesis and conceptual framework for this study was based on a combination of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Norm Activation Theory's (NAT) constructs as the underlying motivational factors that contribute to pro-environmental disposal intent. The research was carried out in the Gauteng province, South Africa. The sample comprised of 315 female consumers; female consumers were of particular interest since they tend to engage in pro-environmental behaviour to a larger extent than males. This quantitative study used a cross-sectional survey design for which a Qualtrics web-based questionnaire was developed. Data was captured and coded to be further subjected to descriptive and inferential analyses. The findings indicated that most respondents are aware of environmental consequences related to the disposal of apparel. Social norms influenced respondents' personal norms, as well as their behavioural intent to make pro-environmental decisions regarding the disposal of apparel. It seems that consumers' attitudes also influence their pro-environmental behavioural intent significantly. In contrast, perceived behavioural control had a weaker influence on pro-environmental intent. The theoretical contribution of this study relates to the relevance of TPB and NAT constructs in the local context. In so far as practical implications are concerned, it was concluded that government and businesses should get involved in promoting pro-environmental apparel disposal options and educating consumers about the benefits of disposing apparel in a pro-environmental manner. / Die klere en tekstiel bedryf speel 'n noodsaaklike rol in die vermindering van natuurlike bronne, besoedeling en ander omgewingsprobleme. Pro-omgewings pogings moet dus aangemoedig word in alle stadiums van die klere voorsienings kettings, maar meer spesifiek ook in die wegdoen fase waarin verbruikers aangemoedig moet word om omgewings vriendelike opsies te oorweeg soos skenking, herwinning en herverkoping. Die doel van hierdie studie was vroulike verbruikers se pro-omgewings klere beskikkings motivering en bedoeling te verken en beskryf in 'n Suid Afrikaanse konteks. Die hipotese en konseptuele raamwerk vir hierdie studie is gebaseer op 'n kombinasie van die Teorie van Beplande Gedrag (TPB) en die Norm Aktiverings Teorie (NAT) se konsepte as die onderliggende motiverende faktore wat bydra tot verbruikers se pro-omgewings wegdoen voorneme. Die navorsing was uitgevoer in Gauteng provinsie, Suid Afrika. Die steekproef het uit 315 vroulike verbruikers bestaan; vroulike verbruikers was van besondere belang aangesien hulle geneig is om betrokke te raak in pro-omgewings gedrag tot 'n groter mate as mans. Hierdie kwantitatiewe studie het 'n deursnit opname-ontwerp gebruik waarvoor 'n Qualtrics web-gebaseerde vraelys ontwikkel is. Die data was ingevoer en verder gekodeer om beskrywende en inferentiële statistiek ontledings te ontwikkel. Die bevindings het aangedui dat die meeste respondente bewus is van hoe die wegdoen van klere die omgewing beïnvloed. Sosiale norme het die respondente se persoonlike norme beïnvloed, asook hul gedragspatrone intensie om pro-omgewings besluite te maak ten opsigte van die wegdoen van klere. Dit blyk dat die houdings van verbruikers hul pro-omgewings gedrags intensie ook aansienlik beïnvloed. In teenstelling hiermee, het waargeneemde gedrags beheer 'n swakker invloed op pro-omgewings voorneme. Die teoretiese bydrae van hierdie studie het betrekking tot die toepaslikheid van TPB en NAT konsepte in 'n plaaslike konteks. In terme van praktiese implikasies, was die gevolgtrekking dat die regering en besighede betrokke moet raak in die bevordering van pro-omgewings wegdoen opsies en die opvoeding van verbruikers oor die voordele van die afhandeling van klere op 'n pro-omgewings wyse. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Consumer Science / MConsumer Science / Unrestricted

Some human actions are linked to the decline of the environment on a planetary scale. In order to motivate individuals to adopt pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs), it is important to understand how individuals react when exposed to persuasive messages. The goal of this program of research was to examine the influence of images of climate change causes, consequences, and solutions on the relationships between environmental motivation, psychological discomfort, discomfort compensation strategies, as well as changes in pro-environmental attitude and PEBs. In Study 1 (N = 199), I identified visual stimuli (pictures) depicting causes, consequences or solutions to global warming to be used in Study 2. Also, I examined the relationship between environmental motivation and competency on the perception of these pictures. The results indicated that the pictures depicting causes or consequences were perceived more negatively than pictures depicting solutions. In addition, findings showed that regardless of the individual’s perceived level of environmental competence and their type of motivation towards PEBs, individuals had a negative perception of pictures depicting causes and consequences to global warming as well as a positive perception of pictures related to solutions to global warming. In Study 2 (N = 312), I examined the relationships between environmental motivation, psychological discomfort, discomfort compensation strategies, as well as changes in pro-environmental attitude and PEBs following the exposition to images identified in Study 1. Three models based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), Action-Based Model, and the Hierarchical Action-Based model of Inconsistency Compensation in the Environment (HABICE) domain were examined. The results indicated that exposure to pictures alone is not enough to generate a significant change in pro-environmental attitude or PEBs. The findings showed that the SDT model was best suited to explain the process leading to PEBs changes when exposed to pictures depicting causes of global warming. Finally, the results indicated that the HABICE model was best suited to explain changes in pro-environmental attitude when individuals are exposed to pictures depicting consequences. The HABICE was also a good model to explain the relationships among the different variables when individuals are exposed to pictures depicting solutions to global warming. Overall, this program of research contributed to both SDT and the HABICE models by supporting their conceptual framework.

Much work has been done in communicating environmental messages about climate change to promote pro-environmental beliefs and behaviours, yet individual-level behavioural changes are not occurring rapidly enough to make meaningful reductions in environmental harm. Studies have shown that although information-based and scientific means of communicating about climate change are the most common strategies, they are largely ineffective in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. As an alternative to these fact-based narratives, stories are proposed as effective tools for environmental communication and promoting behavioural change. To determine the impact of the narrative structure of climate change communication on behaviour, this study examined how exposure to fact-based and story-based narrative structures of environmental messages differentially influence the extent of engagement in pro-environmental consumption behaviour. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used as a framework to examine the attitudinal and behavioural responses to the story-based and fact-based communication conditions. Specifically, we examined the relationship between non-consumption attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intentions, and non-consumption behaviour, and explored how narrative structure influences the TPB processes for non-consumption. Participants (n=291) were randomly assigned to read a story or factsheet about the environmental consequences of overconsumption of material goods, or a non-relevant text. Pre- and post-test measures of pro-environmental consumption behaviour were conducted 14 days apart. Post-test attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and behavioural intentions towards practicing non-consumption were also measured. Results demonstrated that both story-based and fact-based narratives were effective tools for promoting pro-environmental consumption behaviour, providing some support for the information deficit theory. Four domains of pro-environmental consumption behaviour were determined as non-consumption, reuse, activism, and green shopping behaviour. The story-based narrative was more effective than the fact-based narrative and the control narrative in increasing non-consumption and green shopping practices, while activism and reuse behaviour were not influenced differently by narrative structure. The TPB was found to be a useful model for assessing non-consumption, such that non-consumption behaviour was predicted by attitudes, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms through the mediating role of behavioural intentions. Non-consumption attitude was the strongest predictor of intentions, and subjective norm was the weakest predictor of intentions. Narrative structures did not have significant effects on the participants’ reported non-consumption attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control or intentions, nor on the relationships between the TPB constructs. The findings suggest that story-based narrative structures are effective tools for delivering climate change information to broad audiences and encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. However, the role of information-based communication should not be discounted. The findings also contribute to the body of research on pro-environmental consumption behaviour by providing a deeper understanding of the psychological mechanisms of non-consumption, an essential yet understudied domain of sustainable behaviour. / Graduate / 2023-01-12

Recognizing the importance of food waste as an environmental and social problem, this thesis aims to test nudging as a successful tool to promote a pro-environmental behaviour towards food waste reduction. The present research uses an experiment in a university canteen in Gotland, Sweden, with two interventions - posters with informational prompts and practical tips. Through quantitative analysis, we were able to conclude that nudging reduced overall food waste but with no statistical significance for the informational treatment. Furthermore, the informational prompts and the suggestions of shortcut solutions had similar positive impacts on food waste, with no significant difference. However, the study highlights some aspects that limit these results to a short-term perspective due to the experimental period of two months. On the other hand, the complementary qualitative data from interviews with customers revealed that nudges, especially practical suggestions, can be more useful as an awareness tool rather than a technique to actually change behaviours. Overall, the findings show that the two interventions reduced food waste with a continuous decreasing trend. Therefore, nudging can be a useful technique for canteens and restaurants to influence consumers’ behaviour towards food waste reduction.

This paper looks at the motions sent into the Swedish government’s Committee on Environment and Agriculture between 2018-2022 to see if gender impacts the environmental content. Much research has been done on the environmental attitudes of representatives; however, little research has been done on environmental legislative behaviour. When it’s been done, there have been varying results Some find that women engage in more pro-environmental legislative behaviour than men, and some find that there is no difference (e.g. Fredriksson & Wang, 2011; Jones, 1997). The hypothesis for this study was that women would show more pro-environmental behaviour in their motions. However, the result from this study shows that there was no significant difference in number of environmental motions sent in by women and men. Nevertheless, the results showed that there is a significant connection between parties and pro- environmental motions, where the more right a party was on the left-right scale, the less pro-environmental motions were sent in. In addition, the results show that right wing parties handed in more anti-environmental motions. These findings could strengthen the research on environmental attitudes and environmental behaviour amongst legislators.

Using an online charitable dictator game experiment (n=214), we explored how different, randomly assigned experimental treatments (social media posts) containing anti-climate-change sentiment (n=77, 36%), misinformation (n=74, 34.6%) and a control condition (n=63, 29.4%) impacted the real donation behaviour of pro-environmentalists to an environmental non-governmental organisation. Participants were recruited through social media (Facebook, Linked-In, and Reddit). We found that the treatments resulted in minimal differences to donation likelihood and amount. We used the same charitable dictator game experiment (n=56) to explore how these experimental treatments containing anti-climate-change sentiment (n=20, 35.7%), misinformation (n=26, 46.4%) and a control condition (n=10, 17.9%) impacted the social media response behaviour of pro-environments, as well as their real donation behaviour. We found that the treatments resulted in differences to reply frequency (p=0.02935) and minimal differences to reply tone (p=0.05698), while donation behaviour was unaffected. Donation behaviour did not stratify with demographic factors with the exception of geographic location (p=0.04825). These results suggest that the donation behaviour of pro-environmentalists is resistant to climate-change misinformation and anti-climate change opinions presented through social media, while these treatments may influence social media reply behaviour. Further research into the effect of this reply behaviour on other social media users and online spaces as well as whether these observations apply to the general population is necessary. These results also call into question the necessity of moderating misinformation and climate scepticism in online spaces, as there is some evidence that this content does not negatively affect prosocial behaviour, and instead may encourage cross-attitudinal discussion. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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För att förstå vad som får en individ att förändra beteenden till mer miljövänliga har studien utgått ifrån Fogg behavior model som menar att faktorerna motivation, förmåga och triggers behövs för att ett beteende ska förändras. Studien har undersökt i hur stor grad individer som har motivation och förmåga, samt fått triggers, uppnått sina miljömässiga beteendeförändringsmål. Det har även undersökts hur stor skillnad triggern gör för att ett beteende ska uppnås. Jag höll fyra, för allmänheten öppna, föreläsningar om kemikalier i vardagen varpå deltagarna satte fem beteendeförändringsmål att uppnå. Hälften fick under två månaders tid kontinuerliga triggers varpå samtliga respondenter fyllde i en uppföljning där de rankade i vilken grad de upplevde att deras beteendemål var uppfyllt. Resultatet visar att gruppen med både motivation, förmåga och triggers i genomsnitt nådde sina mål med 82,6 % och att gruppen med motivation och förmåga, men utan triggers, uppnådde sina mål i genomsnitt med 59,9%. Fishers exakta test visar en signifikansnivå på p < 0,01 vilket innebär en hög signifikant. Detta tyder på att Fogg behavior model är tillförlitlig samt att faktorn trigger är viktig för att en beteendeförändring ska ske. / To understand what makes individuals change their behaviors towards more environmentally friendly, this study started with Fogg behavior model which says that the factors needed to change a behavior is motivation, ability and triggers. This study investigated in which scale individuals who has motivation, ability and triggers achieved their goals of changing behaviors to more environmentally friendly, and how much effect the trigger had. I had four lectures, all opened for the general public, about chemicals in the every day life and afterwords the participants chose five ”behavior-goals” they wanted to achieve. Half of the respondents got triggers every week and after two months everybody made a follow-up where they rated in which scale they experienced that their goals were achieved. The result shows that the group with both motivation, ability and triggers reached their goals in average with 82,6% and the group with motivation and ability but without triggers reached their goals in average with 59,9 %. Fisher ́s Exact Test shows a significance level of p < 0,01 which is the same as a highly significant. This indicates that Fogg behavior model might be reliable and that the trigger is important for a behavior to occur.

Unga vuxna är en viktig målgrupp att uppmana till att anta en miljövänlig livsstil, då stadiet mellan tonår och vuxenliv präglas av förändring och utveckling av livsstil och vanor. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka unga vuxnas vanor gällande miljöbeteende och vilken typ av motivation de har för att handla miljövänligt. Genom en enkätundersökning som inkluderar 294 svar har denna studie funnit att unga vuxna är motiverade till att vara miljövänliga. Studien visar att identified regulation är den mest dominanta typen av reglering till miljöbeteende. De huvudsakliga barriärerna mot ökat engagemang kan härledas till de tre grundläggande psykologiska behoven autonomi, kompetens och tillhörighet. Nyckelord: motivation, miljöbeteende, unga vuxna, SDT, miljö / Individuals experience a fundamental change upon becoming adults. They develop lifestyles and habits that they will carry with them throughout the rest of their life. Therefore urging this group to adopt an environmentally friendly lifestyle is vital. The purpose of this study is to identify environmental habits and motivation for pro-environmental behaviour among emerging adults in Sweden. Through a questionnaire survey including 294 responses, the study has found that emerging adults are motivated to engage in environmental activities with identified regulation as the predominant type of regulation. The main barriers for further engagement are the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness.Keywords: motivation, pro-environmental behaviour, emerging adults, SDT, environment

Corporate social marketing (CSM) refers to "a means whereby a corporation supports the development and/or implementation of a behavior change campaign intended to improve public health, safety, the environment, or community well-being" (Kotler & Lee, 2005a, p.114). The examination of CSM by professional sport organizations (PSOs) is significant since these organizations have the potential to serve as a particularly meaningful vehicle for promoting socially beneficial ideas and behavior (Chalip, 2006; Kaufman & Wolff, 2010; Loakimidis, 2007; Smith & Westerbeek, 2007). Despite this, little investigation has been undertaken in this research area (Irwin, Irwin, Miller, Somes, & Richey, 2010; Sparvero, 2010). Furthermore, no comprehensive framework exists that explains the process of how CSM influences consumer voluntary behavior in general business disciplines (Du, Sen, & Bhattacharya, 2008). The purpose of this study was to address this gap and investigate the role of corporate credibility in understanding the process of how PSOs influence consumer voluntary behavior through their CSM initiatives. The current research focused on corporate credibility based on previous research findings indicating that the credibility of a message source greatly influences the persuasiveness of its communication (e.g., Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; Pornpitakpan, 2004). This study developed a theoretical model positing that consumers would formulate their perceptions regarding the credibility of a PSO on supporting environmental protection ("environmental credibility") based on: (1) characteristics of the organization, (2) characteristics of the CSM initiative, and (3) characteristics of the cause. Environmental credibility, in turn, was expected to influence consumer pro-environmental behavior measured by daily recycling involvement and recycling intentions during the PSO's home games. The model further proposed that value congruence would have mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between environmental credibility and pro-environmental behavior. To test this theoretical model, the study collected data from fans of two PSOs that currently operate environmental initiatives. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was employed to analyze the data (n = 368) obtained through web-based questionnaires. The SEM results indicated that the following four of the eight hypothesized antecedents of environmental credibility had significant positive effects: general credibility, perceived effort, perceived impact, and cause importance. Furthermore, environmental credibility was found to positively influence the two recycling behaviors as expected. Contrary to the theoretical propositions, however, the results did not find support for the positive mediating and moderating effect of value congruence. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the literature by highlighting the role of corporate credibility when PSOs engage in CSM initiatives. Moreover, this research, as well as future endeavors, helps PSOs become an effective vehicle for promoting socially beneficial behavior, which ideally can lead to positive social change. / Tourism and Sport