What affects individual energy conservation behavior: Personal habits, external conditions or values? An empirical study based on a survey of college students

Shi, Dongyan; Wang, Lei; Wang, Zhenxia

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2018.12.061

Cited by 58 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Behaving pro-environmentally often produces immediate negative consequences for the individual (e.g., reduction in comfort, higher financial costs), but positive long-term consequences for society and the environment. In line with this assumption, research shows that altruistic and biospheric values are positively related to pro-environmental attitudes, intentions, and behaviors ( Marshall et al, 2019 ; Shi et al, 2019 ), while egoistic values are often negatively related to them ( Honkanen and Verplanken, 2004 ; Nilsson et al, 2004 ; De Groot and Steg, 2008 , 2010 ; Steg et al, 2011 ; Bouman et al, 2018 ). As altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic values are all relevant in relation to pro-environmental behavior, we refer to these three values as “environmental values” throughout this paper.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries

2020

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Given the importance of environmental values (altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic) to pro-environmental behavior, it would be useful to segment the population – an approach known as market segmentation – to tailor pro-environmental messages more effectively. Sociodemographic variables are popular targets for segmentation, as such variables are often knowable in the absence of more nuanced information about individuals. However, evidence for the relationship between sociodemographics and environmental values is sparse, and contradictory. We examined the extent to which popular sociodemographic variables (gender, age, income, education, urbanization level, and political orientation) were predictive of environmental values for 11,820 participants across seven European countries. Overall, sociodemographics were hardly related to environmental values. Only gender and political orientation were weakly but significantly related to environmental values, whereby men and right-wingers showed weaker altruistic and biospheric, and stronger egoistic, values than women and left-wingers. We conclude that sociodemographic variables cannot be considered a suitable proxy for environmental values, and thus that behavior-change campaigns might be more impactful when focused on alternative segmentation strategies in relation to environmental aims.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries

2020

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“…Unlike TPB and TAM, a great deal of previous research about the VBN model has mainly focused on environmental studies, which suggested that the formation of pro-environmental behaviors is related to individual values, beliefs, and norms. Hence, the VBN model is widely deemed as an effective tool to reveal the factors influencing energy conservation behavior [23], environmental behavior [24], and supportive behavior of car reduction policies [25].…”

Section: Previous Models To Explain Behavior Intentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, some researchers developed the extended theoretical conceptual framework to investigate behavior intention by adding other variables. The main additional factors include transport policy (TP) [6], environmental concern (EC) [10], low-carbon awareness (LCA) [4], and personal habits (PH) [23]. The representative behavior intention models are presented in Table 1.…”

Section: Previous Models To Explain Behavior Intentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Regional and Generational Heterogeneity in Low-Carbon Travel Behavior Intention Based on a PLS-SEM Approach

Zhao

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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This study aims at reviewing whether regional and generational differences exist in behavior intention to adopt low-carbon travel modes. Based on 759 questionnaires collected from three cities (Zhenjiang, Suzhou, and Shanghai) with different population sizes in China, we develop a modified theory of planned behavior (MTPB) model framework integrating low-carbon transport policies, psychological aspects, personal norms, and travel habits. A more advanced partial least-square method of structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and a multiple-group analysis (MGA) model are applied to estimate the effects and heterogeneities of these factors on low-carbon travel behavior intention among three cities and four age groups. The results show that the roles of low-carbon policies, subjective norms, and personal norms on behavior intention of adopting low-carbon travel modes are more salient. The effect of low-carbon policy on behavior is much weaker than it is on intention, and it does not follow that such intention will often be followed up with action. There is regional and generational heterogeneity in terms of the influence on low-carbon travel behavior intention. In particular, the benefits of low-carbon policies are more remarkable in the middle-sized city, young adult group, and pre-older adult group. The low-carbon travel behavior intention in the large-sized city, junior-middle adult group, and senior-middle adult group are affected by subjective norms more easily. The large-sized city and young adult group have better personal norms in favor of low-carbon travel. The findings could provide helpful insights into developing heterogeneous transport policies to encourage different travelers to switch from auto to low-carbon travel modes.

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“…According to the self-cognitive theory, habits serve as a reminder for residents to discipline themselves and as a guideline to decide their action or inaction [22]. An increasing number of studies have shown that habits could be considered as a determinant that influences residents' purchasing intention or behaviour [19,23]. Kollmuss and Agyeman [22] claimed that old habits form a strong barrier that should be not ignored in future studies on pro-environmental behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Residents’ Green Purchasing Intentions in a Developing-Country Context: Integrating PLS-SEM and MGA Methods

Wang

Sun

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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This paper aims to examine the determinants of green purchasing intentions among different resident groups in a developing-country context. We first expand the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and build a theoretical model based on green purchasing intention, including attitude, perceived behavioural control, subjective norms, environmental concern, habit, and socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, residential area, and educational level). Following this, we collect 552 questionnaires from residents in Tianjin Municipality, China. We use partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the green purchasing intention of the population sample and then employ a multi-group analysis (MGA) to explore the group differences in residents' green purchasing intention. The results show that green purchasing intention is significantly and positively influenced by attitude, perceived behavioural control, subjective norms, and environmental concern but not by habit. The relationship chain of environmental concern→subjective norms→purchasing intention is the strongest. The results of the MGA show that for residential-area groups, the relationships between attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and habits and purchasing intention differ significantly between the downtown group and the outside-the-city group. For the educational-level groups, the relationship between environmental concern and subjective norms differs significantly between the high-education group and the low-education group. Finally, these findings contribute to the literature on the TPB model on green purchasing intention and provide some suggestions for the local government and green marketers.

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What affects individual energy conservation behavior: Personal habits, external conditions or values? An empirical study based on a survey of college students

Cited by 58 publications

References 42 publications

The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries

The Relationship Between Sociodemographics and Environmental Values Across Seven European Countries

Investigating Regional and Generational Heterogeneity in Low-Carbon Travel Behavior Intention Based on a PLS-SEM Approach

Residents’ Green Purchasing Intentions in a Developing-Country Context: Integrating PLS-SEM and MGA Methods

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