Abstract
Earlier research has yielded contradictory results as to the main drivers of environmentally significant behavior. Intent-oriented research has stressed the importance of motivational aspects, while impact-oriented research has drawn attention to people’s socioeconomic status. In this study, we investigated the diverging role of a pro-environmental stance under these two research perspectives. Data from a German survey (N = 1,012) enabled assessment of per capita energy use, and individual carbon footprints (impact-related measures), pro-environmental behavior (an intent-related measure), and behavior indicators varying in environmental impact and intent. Regression analyses revealed people’s environmental self-identity to be the main predictor of pro-environmental behavior; however, environmental self-identity played an ambiguous role in predicting actual environmental impacts. Instead, environmental impacts were best predicted by people’s income level. Our results show that individuals with high pro-environmental self-identity intend to behave in an ecologically responsible way, but they typically emphasize actions that have relatively small ecological benefits.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
