Abstract
Concerns for environmental issues are important drivers of sustainable and pro-environmental behaviors, and can be differentiated between those with a self-enhancing (egoistic) vs. self-transcendent (biospheric) psychological foundation. Yet to date, the dominant approach for promoting pro-environmental behavior has focused on highlighting the benefits to others or nature, rather than appealing to self-interest. Building on the Inclusion Model for Environmental Concern, we argue that egoistic and biospheric environmental concerns, respectively, conceptualized as self-interest and altruism, are hierarchically structured, such that altruism is inclusive of self-interest. Three studies show that self-interested individuals will behave more pro-environmentally when the behavior results in a personal benefit (but not when there is exclusively an environmental benefit), while altruistic individuals will engage in pro-environmental behaviors when there are environmental benefits, and critically, also when there are personal benefits. The reported findings have implications for programs and policies designed to promote pro-environmental behavior, and for social science research aimed at understanding human responses to a changing environment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1065 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | JUN |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| ISSN | 1664-1078 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Altruism
- Environmental concerns
- Message frames
- Pro-environmental behavior
- Self-interest
- Sustainability
- Values