Car driving, air travel or more sustainable transport? Socio-psychological factors in everyday mobility and long-distance leisure travel

Dütschke, Elisabeth; Engel, Lukas; Theis, Anna; Hanss, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.tbs.2022.03.002

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…However, our results suggest that avoiding flights is especially unattractive or difficult for younger people who might still have a stronger desire to explore the world. Our results of a negative relation between education and intentions to avoid flights contrast with previous literature showing that the level of education was positively associated with intentions to refrain from air travel ( Dütschke et al, 2022 ). However, the sample of Dütschke et al (2022) differed from our sample in terms of share of respondents with a university degree.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…In accordance with the TPB, Davison et al (2014) found that subjective social norms, but also personal norms [see e.g., Norm Activation Model, Schwartz (1977) and Schwartz and Howard (1981) ], predicted the selection of alternatives to air travel and flight frequency. Contrarily, Dütschke et al (2022) found no association between social and personal norms with intentions to refrain from flying. In our study, we focus on pro-travel attitude, environmentally careless holiday attitude (i.e., not caring about the environment when planning vacation), perceived behavioral control, and efficacy beliefs that reducing aviation contributes to climate change mitigation.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…For conducting regression analyses we dummy-coded levels of formal education and gender. Higher education was coded as 1 ( university entrance certificate including “Fachhochschulreife” to university degree ) and 0 [ lower education , see also Dütschke et al (2022) ]. In our sample 32.8% of the respondents held a higher education, thus mirroring the German population closely (32.4%).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While a pro-travel attitude (i.e., valuing freedom of travel choices and opportunities to travel frequently) was positively related to air travel choices, pro-environmental holiday attitude was negatively related (i.e., caring about the environment when planning vacation, see Barr and Prillwitz, 2012 ). In a recent study, Dütschke et al (2022) found that people who perceived a higher behavioral control to travel without flying were less likely to have used a plane in the past and reported higher intentions to use more sustainable travel modes than air travel in the future. Next to behavioral control, the extent to which people believe that their behavior effectively leads to desirable outcomes is considered to impact sustainable behavioral choices ( Hanss and Böhm, 2010 ).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research on travel mode choices found that people, for example, consider travel time and costs ( Román et al, 2007 ) and familiarity ( Dällenbach, 2020 ). A recent study showed that the perceived behavioral control over choices between modes of transport was associated with reduced airplane usage ( Dütschke et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Give Up Flights? Psychological Predictors of Intentions and Policy Support to Reduce Air Travel

2022

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Concerted, timely action for mitigating climate change is of uttermost importance to keep global warming as close to 1.5°C as possible. Air traffic already plays a strong role in driving climate change and is projected to grow—with only limited technical potential for decarbonizing this means of transport. Therefore, it is desirable to minimize the expansion of air traffic or even facilitate a reduction in affluent countries. Effective policies and behavioral change, especially among frequent flyers, can help to lower greenhouse gas emissions. For both, a positive evaluation and public support is indispensable. This study contributes to understanding air travel behavior and the perception of regulative policies. We examined the role of attitudes, perceived behavioral control, efficacy, global identity, and justice concerns for intentions to avoid flights and aviation-related environmental policy support. We conducted an online survey study with a quota sample of N = 2,530 participants in Germany. The strongest positive predictors of intentions to refrain from flying and policy support were perceived behavioral control to travel without flying, efficacy beliefs that avoiding air travel contributes to climate change mitigation, and intergenerational justice concerns; pro-travel attitude was a negative predictor. Moreover, we tested whether the provision of additional information on climate impact, global and intranational inequalities as well as subsidies (implying intranational inequality) affected the intention to avoid air travel and policy support. We found no effects of the different types of information. Nor did we find an interaction between the type of information provided and global or national identity. Our results highlight the need for a shift within the mobility sector that facilitates attractive and accessible transport alternatives in order to strengthen people’s behavioral control to choose other means than planes and their efficacy perceptions. Moreover, raising awareness of the impacts of climate change on future generations and developing strategies to promote people’s concern for intergenerational justice might motivate people to reduce air travel and thereby contribute to a livable future for new generations.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%