Environmental Psychology elective at Leiden University (2020-2021)

Lecture 5: Acting green - sustainable behavior

Evolutionary perspective:

• Evolutionary perspective, focusing on:
  • Ultimate vs proximate explanations
  • Stone Age Brain in 21th century world
• Survival and reproduction
  • Not of individuals but of genes
• Manifest in 5 “ancestral” tendencies
• Important to understand, also for effective interventions

Five “ancestral” tendencies:

1. Propensity for self-interest

• Ensure survival and replication of genes of self and family (inclusive fitness)
• Reciprocal altruism (in small, stable, interdependent groups)

2. Desire for relative status

• Costly signaling: spending --> resourceful -->attraction
• Competitive altruism/environmentalism: sacrificing  increases status (visibility important) --> attraction

Example of status and self-interest: desire to plant trees is increased when name tag (of person who planted) is placed on the tree

Paradox of green to be seen by Van der Wal, Van Horen, and Grinstein (2016):

• Public signaling: Shopping at Ekoplaza vs. Marqt
• Ekoplaza (intrinsic motivation: environment)
• Marqt (extrinsic motivation: status)
• Finding: much more people bought Marqt bag than Ekoplaza bag

3. Unconsciously copying the behavior of others

• Adaptive value in the many situations where trial and error is too costly
• Effective for change when majority is seen to go along
• Humans are disposed to imitate those who are perceived as leaders

Social norms and hotel towels by Goldstein, Cialdini, and Griskevicius (2008)

What has more affect on peopoles' behavior when it comes to reusing a towel?

• INDUSTRY STANDARD: "HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. You can show your respect for nature and help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay."

• SOCIAL NORM: JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. Almost 75% of the guests help the environment by reusing their towels. Help save the environment by reusing your towels yourself during your stay.

• The "social norm" message was much more effective'

4. Following the present over the future

• Temporal discounting: people in general discount the future. So, emphasis should be on direct benefit

5. Disregarding impalpable concerns

• Difficult to appreciate environmental problems when there are no clear sensory (visual, audible, olfactory) cues. E.g.: problems that are not appearant in your immesdiate environment seem less important

Factors that influence behavior

• Information: beliefs, attitudes, values
• Behavior of others : normative pressure
• Financial regulation, legislation, physical change: change in beliefs about behavioral outcomes

Theory of Planned Behavior:Theory in which attitudinal, normative and control beliefs are modeled to predict behavior

• Illustration of Planned Behavior model: http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen
• Lacking in Planned Behavior model: personal norm
  • Feeling of personal obligation to perform behavior based on internalized values
  • Strong additional predictor for environmental behavior
  • Derived from research on altruism, helping
• Adding personal norm: Schwarz’s Norm-Activation Theory (1977):

    4 activators  

1. Awareness of need

2. Responsibility              ------> Personal norm -------> Evaluation ------->Behavior

3. Effective action              

4. Ability

De Leeuw, A., Valois, P., Ajzen, I., & Schmidt, P., 2015. Using the theory of planned behavior to identify key beliefs underlying pro-environmental behavior in high-school students: Implications for educational interventions.

A longitudinal study showing the value of the Theory of Planned Behavior in predicting sustainable behavior

Making an important distinction between the injunctive norm and descriptive norm

Broadening the basic model by two important background factors

• Gender: previous research females > males
• Empathic concerns

Conclusions:

• Theory of Planned Behavior supported
  • Attitude, descriptive social norm and perceived behavioral control predict sustainable behavior
• Influence of what peers do more important than own attitude
• No sex difference found
  • Due to age and education?
• Empathic concern strengthens the sustainable normative beliefs and behavioral beliefs
  • Showing the social dimension of sustainable behavior

Schultz, P. W., & Zelezny, L. C., 1998. Values and proenvironmental behavior: A five-country survey