Go Green, Go Social: Exploring the Antecedents of Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Social Networking Sites beyond Norm Activation Theory

Abstract

The paucity of environmental resources and the threatening warning of global climate change have led to increasing research on environmental issues [e.g., pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs)]. Although norm activation theory (NAT) is a well-recognized theory for approaching PEBs, existing works appear insufficient to explain PEB in the context of social networking sites (SNSs) without taking contextual, emotional, and social factors into account. Grounded in the egocentric tactician model (ETM), NAT, along with the notions of guilt and social stressors, this study integrates a new ETM path, a supplemented emotional path, alongside the conventional NAT path to achieve a more complete picture of what are crucial determinants of PEBs in the context of SNSs. Social stressors positively moderate the emotional path. Data collected from 897 Facebook users confirm all of our proposed hypotheses. Results indicate that beyond the traditional NAT path, the new ETM path and the emotional path add values to illustrate PEBs on SNSs, and new constructs of self-influence on SNSs (SIS) and guilt remarkably drive PEBs alongside personal norms. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and guidelines for future research are identified.

How is it effective for farmers to adopt environmentally friendly cultivated land protection technology: a configurational perspective

“…Subsequent theories, such as the attitude-context-behavior (ABC) theory (Zhang J. et al, 2020), the consciousness-context-behavior system model (Hou et al, 2021), and the cognitive-context-behavior model (CCB) (Aardema and Wong, 2020), suggest that behavior is the result of the interaction between external contextual factors and subjective psychological factors. Previous literature records have mainly analyzed contextspecific moderating effects based on the antecedents of behavior, such as attitudes, consciousness, and cognition, without considering the possible direct influence of external contexts on behavior (Li and Fang, 2022;Lou et al, 2022;Yuan et al, 2022). The causal relationships between the various influences are complex, and the configuration formed by multiple factors has a combined effect on behavior.…”

Antecedents and Consequences of Customers’ Engagement with Pro-Environmental Consumption-Related Content on Social Media

“…Most social media-based literature has focused on online consumer engagement with a specific brand and has identified many factors that affect social media engagement, including advertising attractiveness [4,[17][18][19][20][21], advertising skepticism [22,23], online interaction propensity [24,25], and privacy concerns [17,25]. Contrary to consumers' engagement with other content on social media (for example, brands and products), the engagement of consumers with the pro-environment content may be due to other factors, such as ethical concerns and social norms [26].…”

The effect of social media environmental information exposure on the intention to participate in pro-environmental behavior

“…This has further instigated social media users' IPPEB [17]. Despite the fact that earlier studies have concentrated on the relationship between exposure to climate-change-related information on social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) and the degree of individuals' IPPEB [18][19][20], the great majority of studies have investigated the effect of media exposure on environmental-related behaviors in western countries and southeast Asian countries [18,21]. However, whether exposure to such information on Chinese social media significantly affects social media users' IPPEB is currently unknown.…”