Experimental evidence of an environmental attitude-behavior gap in high-cost situations

Mike Farjam, Olexandr Nikolaychuk () and Giangiacomo Bravo
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Giangiacomo Bravo: LInnaeus University

No 5wxrs, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: So far, there has been mixed evidence in the literature regarding the relation between environmental attitudes and actual ``green'' actions, something known as attitude-behavior gap. This raises the question of when attitudes can actually work as a lever to promote environmental objectives, such as climate change mitigation, and, conversely, when other factors would be more effective. We tested the effect of environmental attitudes on behavior in an online experiment with real money at stake and real-world consequences. We found that environmental attitudes affected behavior in low-cost situations while increasing contribution costs generally reduced their effect. This finding is consistent with the low-cost hypothesis of environmental behavior and has important consequences for the design of more effective climate policies in a democratic context.

Date: 2019-03-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-res
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Journal Article: Experimental evidence of an environmental attitude-behavior gap in high-cost situations (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:5wxrs

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/5wxrs

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