Abstract
Our behaviors are often inconsistent with our attitudes. In the current Study, we took a norm approach to understand why car owners continue to use private cars despite their support for environmentalism. In an experience sampling study, a large representative sample of 610 commuters from a megacity participated in a 2-part study. In the first part, they completed measures of their pro-environmental attitudes and their beliefs about society’s perception of users using transportation types. After ten days, they recorded their commute behaviors on every trip they made over seven days (including a public holiday, four workdays, and a weekend). The results, which included recorded trips from 193 car owners, showed that car owners with strong pro-environmental attitudes used their cars more often when motivated by intersubjective norms. Interestingly, the results were reversed when car owners with strong pro-environmental attitudes were motivated by personal norms. The results concluded that pro-environmental attitudes alone could not predict pro-environment behaviors; instead, activating one’s norms or changing one’s perceived intersubjective norms are needed alongside strong pro-environmental attitudes to change one car driving behaviors.
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Data availability statement
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Kwan, L.YY., Hung, Y.S. Why self-proclaimed environmentalists commit non sustainable behaviors?: Using normative motivation to understand personal attitudes and choices. Curr Psychol 43, 1423–1436 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04238-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04238-4