Influential Factors on Pro-Environmental Behaviors—A Case Study in Tokyo and Seoul

Abstract

To develop the low-carbon society, in addition to the efforts by industrial and commercial sectors, promotion of people's pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) has become one of the key issues. Some PEBs have been investigated in previous studies, however, the targets were limited to particular behaviors (i.e., recycling, water saving, electricity saving). The holistic view of understanding the characteristics of PEBs has remained insufficient. In this study, we selected 58 daily PEBs from various fields and investigated people's practice rates and attitudes in Seoul and Tokyo. The questionnaire surveys were conducted and 2393 (Seoul) and 2220 (Tokyo) valid responses were analyzed. Most PEBs had significantly different practice rates between Seoul and Tokyo. It can be concluded that the surrounding conditions, such as policy and infrastructure, have some influences on these differences. The positions of the reasons to practice or not to practice PEBs were visualized using multiple correspondence analyses. The results indicated that the monetary reason was the common factor for many PEBs, while some PEBs showed different reasons. The socio-demographic effects were not significantly different between the two regions. Commonly, women and older people showed more activities on PEBs.

Environmental Consciousness in Daily Activities Measured by Negative Prompts

“…This finding is consistent with and strengthens the results of previous studies. Lee et al and Aoyagi-Usui et al reported that Japanese women were more likely to be positive than men in PEBs related to household affairs and consumer behaviors [16,17]. Barr also showed females were more likely to take waste prevention measures [18].…”

“…Ando et al reported that the Japanese subjective norm, which is a psychological element that considers what close people such as family members think, had a greater influence on Japanese in performing PEBs than it did for Germans. Other studies showed that Japanese people cared about other's points of view as part of their culture, and the effect of such attitude on their behaviors was larger than in other cultures [16,23,24]. Aoyagi-Usui et al also concluded in their report that the structure of environmental values and factors encouraging environmental actions differ by country and type of actions [17].…”

The Effect of Information Provision on Pro-Environmental Behaviors

“…We selected two target behaviors using the results of our previous study, in which we selected 58 daily PEBs and surveyed the practice rate of and reasons for each behavior in Seoul and Tokyo [1]. Among those 58 behaviors, we selected the target behaviors for the present study based on the following criteria: a) the behavior shows a relatively low practice rate (<60%), b) lack of information determines the non-practice of the behavior, and c) the effect of information provision on the behavior can be easily tested over a short-term period.…”

“…Among those 58 behaviors, we selected the target behaviors for the present study based on the following criteria: a) the behavior shows a relatively low practice rate (<60%), b) lack of information determines the non-practice of the behavior, and c) the effect of information provision on the behavior can be easily tested over a short-term period. Two behaviors that fulfilled these criteria were selected: 1) use of one's own cup or tumbler at cafés, instead of disposable cups ("My Cup"; B27 in [1]) and 2) purchase of Carbon Cashbag products ("Carbon Cashbag"; B49 in [1]). "My Cup" behavior had a 59.1% practice rate in the first study.…”

“…For several decades, trials have been conducted in an attempt to enhance PEBs in people's daily lives, and have helped to change people's awareness and behaviors. However, the actual practice rates of PEBs are still not high, and lower practice rates are particularly common among younger generations [1] [2].…”