Saving the environment from the internet: A polynomial mitigation model of reducing Individual Internet Consumption through Internet Pricing and Environmental Awareness

Abstract

The ever-increasing internet usage purports to make substantial damage to the environment as a result of the emissions arising from the internet supporting infrastructures like data centers. However, there has been much less discussion on creating an awareness of the damage that the internet does to the environment. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the internet use can be reduced at the individual level by calibrating internet price and one’s environmental awareness. The study employs a population-based survey experiment and conducts a polynomial regression analysis using a sample of 326 individuals to understand the conjoined relationship between internet price and environmental awareness. The results indicate that internet price affordability moderated the relationship between environmental awareness and internet usage. Although, before inducing awareness, pricing plays a major role in changing consumption, after inducing awareness the significance of pricing decreases, and awareness tends to determine the consumption. Moreover, the multi-group analysis infers that age does not show any significance on price affordability and environmental awareness, although males display a high price sensitivity and responsiveness towards awareness than their female counterparts.

Development of the Research Literacy Scale for Teachers

“…Some findings demonstrate that increased awareness helps people translate their intentions into actions (Chatzisarantis & Hagger, 2007). Wathuge and Sedera (2021) , who examined internet use and awareness in a longitudinal study, found that awareness alone can change behavior. In contrast to these findings, Greisel et al (2023) hypothesized that a model developed from TPB might describe evidence-informed reasoning in pre-service teachers.…”

Reducing the Negative Environmental Impact of Consumerization of IT: An Individual-Level Approach

“…Krause et al [106] show that receiving positive feedback from others or using media to reflect on one's own self are mainly associated with benefits for users' self-esteem, which consequently increases the relatedness need. We used the study findings of Wathuge and Sedera [107,108] to satisfy the relatedness need.…”

“…However, Loock et al [17] state that studies at the individual level are also important because individual behaviors on a wide scale also have a considerable impact on the quality of the environment. Although individual-level technical steps such as human-computer-interaction designs [18,19] and gamification techniques [20] have been investigated, non-technical self-regulated and non-self-regulated interventions in reducing internet pollution have been not studied [21]. Hence, this study aims to fill that gap by aiming to identify the effect motivation and price interventions have on individuals' willingness to reduce internet usage.…”