Stop chasing unicorns of climate inaction: Annulling the value–action gap, introducing persons

Abstract

In this article, we argue that it is necessary to cut the Gordian knot that is the value–action gap in climate action research. We do this theoretically by demonstrating the link connecting research findings on the gap with mainstream environmental psychology’s implicit theory of human conduct, and we do it empirically by demonstrating the field’s own finding: that this theory of human conduct is a poor fit with reality. We present an existing, alternative theory of human conduct and illustrate the value of this alternative with empirical data. We show that (a) there are theories that offer a better fit with reality, one of them being the person perspective and (b) according to these theories and the empirical example, people do not show value–action gaps (i.e., no void) but rather very meaningful considerations of and prioritizations among their many intertwined motives.