Exploring How Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Relate to Pro-Environmental Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Environmental Moral Disengagement

Marinella Paciello, Raffaele Barresi, Giuseppe Corbelli (), Alessandro Pollini and Alessandro Caforio
Additional contact information
Marinella Paciello: Faculty of Psychology, Uninettuno Telematic International University, 00186 Rome, Italy
Raffaele Barresi: Faculty of Psychology, Uninettuno Telematic International University, 00186 Rome, Italy
Giuseppe Corbelli: Faculty of Psychology, Uninettuno Telematic International University, 00186 Rome, Italy
Alessandro Pollini: Faculty of Psychology, Uninettuno Telematic International University, 00186 Rome, Italy
Alessandro Caforio: Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 22, 1-22

Abstract: The present study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the attitude–behavior link in the sphere of environmental issues by taking into account the role of moral disengagement. Pro-environmental attitudes, at both the implicit and explicit levels, were considered under the hypothesis that they may have direct and indirect effects on pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) through moral disengagement. The hypothesized relationships specified in the mediation model were tested by administering a cross-sectional online survey to a convenience sample of adult students enrolled in a digital university (N = 176; M age = 40.54, SD age = 14) via Millisecond Inquisit Web. The assessment included instruments measuring environmental moral disengagement and explicit attitudes toward the adoption of PEBs, together with an ad hoc Implicit Association Test designed to capture implicit attitudes toward sustainability, and the use of a pro-environmental behavior rating scale. While the sensitivity to model misfit was limited given the achieved sample size, the results from the path analysis show that implicit attitudes do not have a direct effect on PEBs, while explicit attitudes directly influence them. Moreover, as positive explicit and implicit pro-environmental and sustainability attitudes increase, moral disengagement decreases, which in turn negatively affects PEBs. Overall, the present findings confirm that moral disengagement plays a mediating role, and that attitudes can be targets for potential interventions aimed at promoting pro-environmental behaviors and addressing justificatory mechanisms that hinder their adoption.

Keywords: pro-environmental behavior; moral disengagement; attitudes; implicit; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/22/10011/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/22/10011/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:22:p:10011-:d:1790827

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().