Abstract
The present study examined how feedback regarding one’s personal impact on the environment, along with feedback regarding one’s group’s impact, influences environmental attitudes, intentions, and self-beliefs. Using a bogus carbon footprint calculator, participants received either moderately or highly negative feedback about their own environmental impact as well as feedback about the average impact of students at their university. Participants expressed the greatest intentions to behave proenvironmentally, especially with behaviors that require a high level of commitment, when their personal feedback was worse than that of their group. Impact of feedback on intentions was not mediated by attitudes, emotions, or self-evaluations, suggesting that participants were not motivated to improve their behaviors because they felt badly about themselves. Instead, people were motivated to change their behaviors when they believed their current behavior differed from that of an important reference group.
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