Suchergebnisse

Given the aim to motivate consumers to behave in an environmentally friendly manner, there is a need to understand how consumers' environmental behavior can be influenced and what variables predict environmental behavior. This article applies structural equation models (path analyses) to investigate these issues, with experienced social norm, assumed consequences of behavior and personal norm as independent variables of recycling behavior. The study is based on a Norwegian survey. As predicted, the social norm revealed no direct link to behavior. Rather, the effect of the social norm seemed to depend on an intervening personal norm. The possible social pressure exercised by family members was investigated. Assumed environmental consequences of behavior and reported behavior were found to be only loosely connected. Furthermore, assumed consequences of behavior revealed no mediating effect on the link between personal norm and behavior, which is contrary to what Schwartz's theory on altruistic behavior would imply.

The means applied to promote environmentally friendly behavior need to be evaluated. This study investigates the possibility that actions meant to improve recycling may have unintended consequences in fields other than the target behavior. The relation between self-reported environmental behaviors in several sectors is studied, with particular attention given to the question of whether increased recycling may develop into a compensatory behavior for less environmentally friendly behavior elsewhere. Results from a survey, including approximately 1,500 Norwegian consumers, are presented. No tendencies toward compensatory behavior are detected. Furthermore, the survey does not indicate that the introduction of measures meant to increase recycling brings increased attitudinal support for compensatory behavior. At the same time, the survey supports the view that there is no "general" environmental behavior among consumers. On the other hand, the correlations between different behaviors increase when the behaviors in question become more similar.

Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been theorized as a stable, early-emerging trait influencing outgroup evaluations, a view supported by evidence from cross-sectional and two-wave longitudinal research. Yet, the limitations of identifying causal paths with cross-sectional and two-wave designs are increasingly being acknowledged. This article presents the first use of multi-wave data to test the over-time relationship between SDO and outgroup affect among young people. We use cross-lagged and latent growth modeling (LGM) of a three-wave data set employing Norwegian adolescents (over 2 years, N = 453) and a five-wave data set with American university students (over 4 years, N = 748). Overall, SDO exhibits high temporal rank-order stability and predicts changes in outgroup affect. This research represents the strongest test to date of SDO's role as a stable trait that influences the development of prejudice, while highlighting LGM as a valuable tool for social and political psychology.

Strategies to promote environmentally friendly behavior among consumers require an understanding of how such behaviors are interrelated. We examined 29 different environmentally significant behaviors, using data from surveys in Germany ( n = 967) and in Norway ( n = 880). A priori models derived from previous research assuming either environmental behavior as a single factor or as organized by behavioral sectors, degrees of constraint, or frequencies of occurrence did not fit the data. In contrast, a model developed via a bottom-up approach with the German data was supported by the independent, Norwegian sample. This model can integrate several theoretical perspectives and suggests three distinct behavioral fields, with little or no correlation: home-based actions, car use, and air travel for vacation. The factor home-based actions encompasses several behaviors and correlates with the New Ecological Paradigm scale but also with a measure of impression management. Implications for understanding and influencing environmentally significant behaviors are discussed.