Positive affect and pro-environmental behavior: A preregistered experiment

Florian Lange and Siegfried Dewitte

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2020, vol. 80, issue C

Abstract: In recent years, correlational evidence has accumulated in support of a positive relationship between positive affect and pro-environmental behavior. In contrast, it remains unclear whether the induction of positive affect can causally promote pro-environmental behavior. Previous attempts to examine the effects of experimental affect induction were constrained by the difficulty to study pro-environmental behavior under controlled laboratory conditions. Here, we address this limitation by examining the effect of a validated affect-induction procedure on a recently validated laboratory measure of pro-environmental behavior. Participants in our preregistered experiment (N = 178) watched and rated video clips pretested to induce either positive or neutral affect before completing 24 trials on the Pro-Environmental Behavior Task (PEBT). Results did not reveal any evidence in support of a positive effect of positive affect on PEBT behavior. This result illustrates the need for further systematic and cumulative research on the complex relationship between affect and pro-environmental behavior.

Keywords: Pro-environmental behavior; Conservation (ecological behavior); Positive affect; Subjective well-being; Happiness; Pro-environmental behavior task (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:80:y:2020:i:c:s0167487020300489

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2020.102291

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