Measuring pro-environmental behavior: Review and recommendations

Abstract

Any scientific attempt to understand, predict, or promote pro-environmental behavior requires an adequate measurement tool for the assessment of pro-environmental behavior. The multidisciplinary interest in pro-environmental behavior has generated a large variety of such tools, ranging from domain-general and domain-specific self-report measures, field observations conducted with the help of informants, trained observers, or technical devices, to behavioral tasks for use in the laboratory. The present review discusses this broad spectrum of existing approaches to the measurement of pro-environmental behavior, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as possibilities to improve upon them. From this review, we deduce several recommendations for the development, selection, and application of measures in proenvironmental behavior research. We conclude by stressing the importance of established and validated measures for a cumulative science of pro-environmental behavior.

Protection motivation theory and pro‐environmental behaviour: A systematic mapping review

“…Definitions of pro‐environmental behaviour are often broad and vary within the literature (as noted by Lange & Dewitte, ). However, for the purposes of the study, pro‐environmental behaviour was defined as those behaviours that proactively attempted to conserve and/or protect the natural environment (Stern, ; Vlek & Steg, ).…”

Pro-environmental behavior as a signal of cooperativeness: Evidence from a social dilemma experiment (post-print)

“…A limitation of our study is that environmental behaviors were self-reported, rather than objectively measured (Kormos & Gifford, 2014;Lange & Dewitte, 2019). Another limitation is that we relied on a single decision paradigm, the "give some" public goods game, and replications using other types of social dilemmas could point to possible boundary conditions of the reported effects.…”

Effect of Green Consumption Value on Consumption Intention in a Pro-Environmental Setting: The Mediating Role of Approach and Avoidance Motivation

“…Recently, pro-environmental consumption behavior has been receiving increasing attention in the literature (Lacroix, 2018;Lange & Dewitte, 2019;Mainieri et al, 1997;Maio & Wei, 2013;Moser, 2015;Steinhorst & Klöckner, 2018;Urban et al, 2019;Welsch & Kühling, 2009). This focus is consistent with an increasingly broader interest in understanding pro-environmental behavior that has persisted for several decades (e.g., Hines et al, 1987;Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002;Lange et al, 2018).…”