Evaluating the Role of Social Norms in Fostering Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Abstract

Human activity is changing the biosphere in unprecedented ways, and addressing this challenge will require changes in individual and community patterns of behavior. One approach to managing individual behaviors is “top-down” and involves imposing sanctions through legislative frameworks. However, of itself, a top-down framework does not appear sufficient to encourage the changes required to meet environmental sustainability targets. Thus, there has been interest in changing individual-level behavior from the “bottom-up” by, for example, fostering desirable pro-environmental behaviors via social norms. Social norms arise from expectations about how others will behave and the consequences of conforming to or departing from them. Meta-analyses suggest that social norms can promote pro-environmental behavior. Environmental social norms that appear to have changed in recent decades and have themselves promoted change include recycling, include nascent behavioral shifts such as the move away from single-use plastics and flight shaming (flygskam). However, whether the conditions under which pro-environmental social norms emerge and are adhered to align with environmental systems’ features is unclear. Furthermore, individuals might feel powerless in a global system, which can limit the growth and influence of pro-environmental norms. We review the conditions believed to promote the development of and adherence to social norms, then consider how those conditions relate to the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene. While promoting social norms has a valuable role in promoting pro-environmental actions, we conclude that norms are most likely to be effective where individual actions are immediately evident and have an obvious and local effect.

Social–ecological connections across land, water, and sea demand a reprioritization of environmental management

“…The perception of boundaries is not the same in the 3 ecosystem domains, leading to disparities in how people defend and protect physical areas (e.g., land, and sometimes wetlands and streams, are often in private ownership, and the ocean, and the resources it provides and sustains, are publicly owned; Figure 1B). People are more likely to adjust their actions to protect a forest or stream on their own property, or in a public space that is near to where they live, than a river or estuary that is some distance away (i.e., the psychological distance effect; Perry et al, 2021). Ecological processes transcend boundaries constructed by humans (DeFries and Nagendra, 2017), and this fractured socialecological dynamic creates barriers to identifying and acting on the drivers of change and solutions.…”

Citizen Environmental Behavior From the Perspective of Psychological Distance Based on a Visual Analysis of Bibliometrics and Scientific Knowledge Mapping

“…Ho et al (2020) believed that the low level of public participation in climate change may be due to the neglect of the future threat of climate change and the distant benefits of mitigation behavior, the research found that raising awareness of climate change can promote pro-environmental behavior. Social norms arised from the expectation of others' behavior and the consequences of abiding by or deviating from these norms, meta-analysis showed that social norms can promote behavior conducive to the environment (Perry et al, 2021). Gao et al (2021) analyzed the relationship between public awareness of green products and price sensitivity, and results showed that public recognition, self-explanation and time distance played an important role in predicting the price sensitivity of green products.…”

How does environmental leadership cause adoption of environmental policy?

“…Next, previous surveys have predicted pro-environmental behaviors through three perspectives. The first perspective is to adopt institutional variables to explain pro-environmental behaviors, such as institutional norms (Perry et al, 2021). The second perspective is to adopt personal perceptions to explain pro-environmental behaviors (Handoyo et al, 2021).…”