Behavioral barriers impede pro-environmental decision-making: Experimental evidence from incentivized laboratory and vignette studies

Roman Hoffmann, Georg Kanitsar and Marcel Seifert

Ecological Economics, 2024, vol. 225, issue C

Abstract: Despite increasing concerns about climate change, many people struggle to translate their pro-environmental values into action. Here, we explore the origins of this value-action gap focusing on the role of behavioral barriers that are characteristic for many environmentally relevant decisions. Using incentivized online laboratory and vignette experiments, we find that individuals are less likely to behave in accordance with their environmental values if they are not immediately affected by the consequences of their actions, if the impacts of their actions are uncertain, and if they contribute only marginally to the outcome. The behavioral barriers also exert an indirect effect on environmental behavior by undermining reciprocity and positive peer effects. The value-action gaps are correlated across the different experimental settings with men and younger participants showing a particularly large gap. These insights are important for climate communication and education, highlighting the important role of the perceived relevance and potential consequences of personal behaviors in collective action.

Keywords: Environmental behavior; Value-action gap; Behavioral barriers; Laboratory experiment; Vignette experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924002441
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:225:y:2024:i:c:s0921800924002441

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108347

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().