Taming the Dragons: Experimental Study on the Effectiveness of Awareness-Empowerment and Social Norms Interventions to Reduce Psychological Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behavior

Abstract

The current preregistered study experimentally and longitudinally tested two interventions targeting psychological barriers to pro-environmental behavior (PEB). A total of 1,802 Slovak adults (53.6% women) were randomly assigned to a control condition, awareness-empowerment intervention, or a social norms intervention. They reported psychological barriers, PEB intentions, and environmental self-efficacy. One month later, 1,308 participants (51.6% women) completed follow-up measures, including past PEB engagement, perceived psychological barriers and perceptions of social and personal environmental norms. Results showed that the awareness-empowerment intervention significantly reduced perceived barriers but did not directly affect PEB intentions (wave 1) or engagement (wave 2). The social norms intervention had no effect on barriers or PEB but increased perceptions of environmental norms. Both interventions increased environmental self-efficacy, reinforcing the idea that psychological barriers are crucial obstacles to PEB. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive approaches, as reducing barriers alone may not be sufficient to drive meaningful behavioral change.