Field interventions for climate change mitigation behaviors: A second-order meta-analysis.

Behavioral change is essential to mitigate climate change. To advance current knowledge, we synthesize research on interventions aiming to promote climate change mitigation behaviors in field settings. In a preregistered second-order meta-analysis, we assess the overall effect of 10 meta-analyses, incorporating a total of 430 primary studies. In addition, we assess subgroup analyses for six types of interventions, five behaviors, and three publication bias adjustments. Results showed that climate change mitigation interventions were generally effective (dunadjusted = 0.31, 95% CI [0.30, 0.32]). A follow-up analysis using only unique primary studies, adjusted for publication bias, provides a more conservative overall estimate (d = 0.18, 95% CI [0.13, 0.24]). This translates into a mean treatment effect of 7 percentage points. Furthermore, in a subsample of adequately powered large-scale interventions (n > 9,000, k = 32), the effect was adjusted downward to approximately 2 percentage points. This discrepancy might be because large-scale interventions often target nonvoluntary participants by less direct techniques (e.g., "home energy reports") while small-scale interventions often target voluntary participants by more direct techniques (e.g., face-to-face interactions). Subgroup analyses showed that interventions based on social comparisons or financial incentives were the most effective, while education or feedback was the least effective. These results provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art summary of climate change mitigation interventions, guiding both future research and practice.

Feeling anxious and being engaged in a warming world: climate anxiety and adolescents' pro-environmental behavior.

BACKGROUND: Climate anxiety is increasingly prevalent among adolescents worldwide. Are climate-anxious adolescents prone to engage in pro-environmental behavior? Or might the association between climate anxiety and pro-environmental be curvilinear, such that high levels of climate anxiety become 'paralyzing'? And do these associations depend on whether adolescents believe that, with effort, the worst impacts of climate change can still be prevented? METHODS: We addressed these questions in three studies (two preregistered; combined N = 2,211), conducted across two countries. We used cross-sectional and longitudinal methods, and various measures of climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. We performed Bayesian regression analyses comparing two models that tested competing hypotheses. The first model included a linear effect of climate anxiety on pro-environmental behavior, and the second model included both a linear and a curvilinear (i.e. inverted U-shaped) effect of climate anxiety on pro-environmental behavior. Next, we added environmental efficacy to the best fitting model and explored its moderating effects. RESULTS: Adolescents reported low-to-moderate levels of climate anxiety. Across the board, we found evidence for a small, positive, and mostly linear (rather than curvilinear) association between climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. While Study 1 supported a curvilinear association (Bayes Factor (BF) = 18.87), Studies 2 and 3 mostly supported a linear model (BFs range 6.86-12.71), except for weak support (BF = 1.62) for a curvilinear association between climate anxiety symptoms and public sphere pro-environmental behavior. Adolescents' environmental efficacy moderated this link for public sphere (e.g. activism), but not private sphere (e.g. recycling), pro-environmental behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Climate-anxious adolescents are prone to engage in pro-environmental behavior. We found limited evidence for 'eco-paralysis' (i.e. a passive state of pro-environmental behavioral stasis) at high levels of climate anxiety. Our results are consistent with the possibility that supporting adolescents' environmental efficacy will help climate-anxious adolescents engage in public sphere pro-environmental behavior.

3 Months without the car in Bielefeld, Germany- a mixed-method study exploring individual motivation to participate in a municipal intervention.

BACKGROUND: Climate change is a major public health issue worldwide. To achieve climate targets and reduce morbidity, a paradigm shift in individual behavior e.g., in mobility, is needed. Municipal interventions can motivate individuals to engage in climate-friendly behavior through different psychological mechanisms. In order for successful interventions, it is necessary to gain better insight from study participants and their reasons for participating in mobility projects (e.g., motivational aspects). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A mixed-methods design was used to evaluate reasons and characteristics of people for participating in an municipal mobility intervention. The quantitative sub-study assesses socioeconomic characteristics, environmental awareness and perceived stress. The qualitative sub-study explores motivation for participation and change, perspectives on car replacement and reasons for car use. RESULTS: Results show that participants (n = 42) are rather high educated and show medium environmental awareness. Participants of the qualitative study part (n = 15) were motiviated to reduce car use already before the intervention and used the intervention as starting point or trial phase. CONCLUSIONS: Urban intervention projects with fitted recruitment strategies and better insights from study participants with the aim to motivate individuals to engage in climate-friendly behavior can help to strengthen sustainability and public health.

Paths from simple game-targeted pro-environmental behaviors to more diverse pro-environmental behaviors: Empirical evidence from the Ant Forest app.

Game interventions have drawn much attention for their playful features and "painless" promotion of simple game-targeted pro-environmental behaviors (GPEBs), which could spill over to more "costly" prosocial behaviors for pro-environmental causes (PSBPs). The literature places much emphasis on game-targeted mechanisms (e.g., enjoyment and competition) to explain the impacts of game interventions, but pays little attention to non-game-targeted mechanisms to explore their spillover effect. Using online survey data from 1246 Chinese residents, this paper first compares players' and nonplayers' levels of engagement with GPEBs and with two common PSBPs, finding a positive spillover effect from game-targeted simple behaviors to more diverse PSBPs. Based upon goal theory, self-perception theory, and learning theory, the paper then examines the underlying mediating mechanisms of the positive relationship between GPEBs and PSBPs for subsamples of players and nonplayers respectively. The results demonstrate that individual awareness of problem and self-efficacy could be enhanced through engaging in simple GPEBs, which could spill over to more challenging and "costly" PSBPs, including charitable giving and volunteering for pro-environmental causes. The study provides important insights on helping to encourage specific types of more challenging PSBPs not directly targeted by the game.

Pro-environmental practice among young population: A scoping review.

INTRO: There is an inequality between pro-environmental knowledge acquisition and behavior. A change in behavior is required to solve both current and future environmental challenges since human behavior has an influence on pro-environmental practices. OBJECTIVE: Of the study was to carry out a critical analysis of current literature on Pro-environmental practices among the Young population. METHOD: The research question formulation on PICO served as the foundation for the search approach. Keywords were searched in different combinations from the popular databases SCOPUS, PubMed, Medline, Google Scholar, EMBASE, Google and Cochrane library Boolean operators (AND and OR) and keywords were employed in the search to avoid oversaturating the data. Fifteen full-text articles were selected for the study. RESULT: Review studies confirmed that youth engagement is highly valued, with evidence from increasing usage of information and communication technologies (education and environmental consciousness among young people. Analysis of pro-environmental practices and environmental behavior has to be given greater attention considering to the adverse impacts of the existing lifestyle on the environment. This made it possible to incorporate and simultaneously explore a variety of variables and effects on environmental practices, furthering the understanding of how these are interpreted. CONCLUSION: This study pointed up and made contributions to the expanding field of environmental practices barriers. The challenges found should be taken into account in its entirety and utilized to directly inform policies and procedures in order to promote adoption for practices reduction and remove the obstacles inhibiting change.

Pro-environmental food practices in EU countries strongly suggest mutually reinforcing improvements in gender equality and environmental sustainability.

This paper seeks to understand how pro-environmental food practices among women and men in the EU can be supported by considering the interlinkages between gender equality and environmental sustainability. A special aspect is that the role of gender equality is interpreted in terms of Schwartz's theory on national cultural values, which relates gender equality to cultures that emphasize intellectual autonomy and egalitarianism. The paper investigated how pro-environmental food practices (including meat reduction) among women and men correlated with their countries' national income level and its level of gender equality. It was a multilevel analysis of survey data from 27 countries (Eurobarometer 95.1, Spring 2021). Considering that studies about gender equality and the environment often find problematically high correlations between gender equality and national income, this study focused on political gender equality (i.e. women's representation in parliament), which had desirable characteristics. National income and political gender equality had complementary impacts on the adoption of pro-environmental food practices (including meat reduction). Men reported more target practices when living in richer countries; the same applied even more strongly to women when living in richer and more politically gender-balanced countries. It was concluded that women may have developed more autonomy by, inter alia, adopting pro-environmental food practices. At the level of individual behavior, this illustrates "mutually reinforcing dynamics" in the pursuit of gender equality and environmental sustainability goals.

Organized activities in adolescence and pro-environmental behaviors in adulthood: The mediating role of pro-environmental attitudes.

INTRODUCTION: Organized activities practiced in adolescence are known to foster positive development, including active citizenship. Active citizenship encompasses a wide range of behaviors, one of them being pro-environmental behaviors. Few studies focused on the developmental factors that may predict these behaviors in adults, despite their crucial role in counteracting the current climate crisis. However, prior research showed that attitudes were typically major predictors of behaviors. This study thus tested a model that posited participation in organized activities in adolescence as a predictor of pro-environmental attitudes in emerging adulthood and these attitudes as a predictor of pro-environmental behaviors in adulthood. METHODS: Three hundred twenty-one participants (61% girls) from Quebec (Canada) completed all time points across a 17-year period. Participants self-reported their participation in organized activities (sports, cultural, prosocial) from ages 14 to 17, pro-environmental attitudes, from ages 18 to 22, and pro-environmental behaviors, at age 30. RESULTS: Results revealed that pro-environmental attitudes mediate the relationship between adolescent participation in cultural activities and pro-environmental behaviors in adulthood. Practicing sporting or prosocial activities in adolescence did not predict stronger pro-environmental attitudes or behaviors. Interestingly, pro-environmental attitudes consistently predicted pro-environmental behaviors later in life. CONCLUSIONS: These findings and prior research suggest that participation in cultural activities may provide a space to discuss, imagine change, and cultivate sensitivity towards nature. This may contribute to the development of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors later in life.

Will attitudes corrected by social norms have a more powerful impact on pro-environmental behavior? Evidence from a process model moderated by self-construal.

Residents' pro-environmental behaviors are considered important for reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. However, optimizing the implementation of pro-environmental behavior need to be further studied. To this end, we placed residents' recycling behavior within a socialized situation. Explored the "Attitude-Behavior intention-Behavior" intermediary path regulated by self-construal, whether and how it can more effectively promote residents to transfer recycling behavior intention as recycling behavior after joining the influence of social norms. The results showed that after considering the influence of social norms, the transformation of residents' Habit adjustment recycling behavior (HAB) was significantly improved. Further, the masking effect of "Behavioral intention-Interpersonal facilitation recycling behavior (IFB)" in the mediation model was effectively reduced. HAB and IFB had stronger dependence on independent self-construal (IDSC) and interdependent self-construal (ITSC), respectively. In addition, when the self-construal level was low, the overall effect of the chain mediation model was stronger, highlighting the advantage of the role played by social norms.

Measuring environmental awareness: An analysis using google search data.

Environmental awareness is usually measured using surveys. This paper aims to offer an alternative measure: an Environmental Awareness Index (EAI) constructed using Google search data provided by Google Trends. The benefits of using Google search data over surveys are that (i) they are less costly to obtain, (ii) they are available at high frequency, and (iii) they cover countries where no surveys are available. To test the validity of the proposed EAI, this study empirically assesses the impact of the computed index on individuals' pro-environmental behaviors using the Special Eurobarometer: Attitudes of European citizens towards the Environment data. Results show that the EAI is positively related to pro-environmental behaviors with a statistical significance at the one percent level. This finding stays robust in pooled OLS as well as in panel regression analysis when GDP, mean years of schooling, and population are included as control variables and when time-fixed effects are introduced. Further, the results confirm that environmental awareness is not stable over time and underline the importance of having a timely measure of environmental awareness at hand. Finally, the findings offer several practical implications for managers and policymakers, who will be able to use a timely measure of environmental awareness, assess and measure the impact of their policies aiming to raise environmental awareness as well as depict the type of behavior influenced by their policies.

Investigating the Role of Goals and Motivation on Waste Separation Behavior Through the Lens of the Theory of Reasoned Goal Pursuit.

Nowadays the prediction and change of waste-related behaviors represent a key topic for scholars and policy makers. The theoretical mainstays applied to waste separation behavior, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Norm Activation Model and the Value Belief Norm, do not include the construct of goal in their formulation. Other goal-focused theories, such as the Goal Systems Theory (GST), lack applications on separation behavior. Recently, Ajzen and Kruglanski (2019) have proposed the Theory of Reasoned Goal Pursuit (TRGP) which combines TPB and GST. Considering TRGP has the potential to offer further insights on human behavior and, to our knowledge, there is no application of TRGP to recycling behavior yet, this paper analyses waste separation behavior of households in Maastricht and Zwolle (The Netherlands) under the lens of TRGP. Although waste separation behavior represents a kind of habitual behavior, this paper highlights the influence of goals and motivation on intention to separate waste. Furthermore, it offers some indications to promote behavior change and some suggestions for future research directions.

The concern about main crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate change's impact on energy-saving behavior.

The number of crises experienced around the world forces people to reconsider and reassess various aspects of their lives. The energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and uncontrolled climate change revealed the importance of energy-saving behavior. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyze the concerns about current crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate change's impact on energy-saving behavior and changes in environmental concern. Referring to the survey conducted in Lithuania in 2022, where 1000 respondents participated, the results revealed that the war in Ukraine was the most concerning problem. The level of climate change concern was slightly lower. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic was the least important problem in Lithuania in 2022. Furthermore, respondents stated that the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the changes in environmental concern and energy-saving actions more than the war in Ukraine did. Meanwhile, the Generalized Linear Model results revealed that only the war in Ukraine positively and significantly influenced energy-saving behavior. The Covid-19 pandemic concern negatively affected energy-saving behavior, while the climate change concern factor affected it indirectly, as the interaction of attitudes toward energy consumption. Thus, this study revealed the main aspect of and how to encourage energy-saving behavior in the context of the main current crises.

Behavioral paradigms for studying pro-environmental behavior: A systematic review.

In view of global environmental deterioration and climate change, researchers from multiple fields of the behavioral sciences examine the determinants of pro-environmental behavior. Research on pro-environmental behavior is dominated by the use of self-report measures, which relates to critical validity problems. Some of these problems can be addressed by studying consequential behavior in behavioral paradigms (i.e., systematically arranged situations of actual environmental relevance). However, pro-environmental behavior paradigms have been scattered across disciplines, and many researchers may not be aware of the wealth of available paradigms. The present review aims to acquaint researchers across disciplinary borders with the behavioral paradigms developed to study pro-environmental behavior in different domains. A systematic literature search revealed 99 ad hoc paradigms and five validated paradigms of pro-environmental behavior. I review how different authors have succeeded in implementing the consequences of pro-environmental behavior in standardized field, laboratory, or online situations, point to caveats in the use of behavioral paradigms, and illustrate how researchers can select a paradigm for their own research.

Eco-emotions and Psychoterratic Syndromes: Reshaping Mental Health Assessment Under Climate Change.

Human activities like greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and deforestation are largely responsible for climate change and biodiversity loss. The climate is a complex system and scientists are striving to predict, prevent, and address the aforementioned issues in order to avoid reaching tipping points. The threat to humankind is not only physical (ie, heat waves, floods, droughts) but also psychological, especially for some groups. Insecurity, danger, chaos, and an unstable system due to climate change have both short- and long-term psychological effects. In this scenario, the need for new psychological categories is emerging, namely, eco-emotions and psychoterratic syndromes which include eco-anxiety, ecological grief, climate worry, and climate trauma. This paper focuses on these new categories, presenting a summary of each one, including definitions, hypotheses, questions, and testological evaluations, as a useful tool to be consulted by researchers and clinicians and to help them in the therapeutic work. Also, this paper endeavors to distinguish between a psychological stress resulting in a positive outcome, such as pro-environmental behavior, compared to a stress that leads to a psychopathology. Prevention and intervention strategies including social and community support are fundamental to help cope with and mitigate the effect of climate change on mental health. In conclusion, the climate crisis has led to an enormous increase in research on climate change and its consequences on mental health. Researchers and clinicians must be prepared to assess this complex phenomenon and provide help to those who cannot cope with anxiety and climatic mourning.

Measuring the effectiveness of using rangers to deliver a behavior change campaign on sustainable palm oil in a UK zoo.

A fundamental objective of modern zoos is promoting pro-environmental behaviors. This study experimentally assessed the contribution of zoo rangers (staff employed to engage visitors) in delivering a behavior change campaign promoting sustainable palm oil use. The campaign was delivered in a dedicated area in a walk-through animal exhibit, with rangers either "present" or "absent" in the campaign space. Questionnaires assessing awareness, knowledge, and purchasing intentions were completed by 1032 visitors. Two analyses were conducted: (1) comparing the impact of ranger presence versus absence (to assess the overall impact of having rangers present regardless of whether they talked to visitors) and (2) comparing the impact of talking to a ranger against demographically matched individuals visiting when rangers were absent (to assess the specific impact of talking to a ranger). Visitors who talked to rangers were more aware of palm oil, had more knowledge, and greater intentions of purchasing sustainable palm oil. However, as only one-quarter of visitors talked to a ranger, fewer differences were found comparing ranger presence versus absence. These findings suggest that rangers can be instrumental in communicating complex conservation issues and delivering zoo-based behavior change campaigns, but their impact is limited by low engagement rates.

Hierarchy of value orientation and beliefs in climate change influencing the farmers' extractive or non-extractive behavior on the farm.

Understanding drivers of farmers' extractive and non-extractive behavior regarding natural resources has become increasingly important in the face of anthropogenic climatic change, which is a major challenge in today's world. Non-extractive behavior on the farm refers to the use of natural resources to the extent that it is possible to renew the context and not harm nature and non-renewable resources. Extractive behavior on the farm is associated with the extensive extraction of natural resources without provision for their renewal such as digging deeper wells instead of using water optimally, using chemical fertilizers with more repetition and higher dosage instead of the bio-fertilizers, and as a later result more climate change. To successfully respond human-made climate change using a cognitive hierarchy model, the influence of values on belief and behavior was assessed by a survey method among farmers of Zanjan province, Iran. A representative sample of 265 farmers was surveyed using proportional randomized multi-stage sampling. The results revealed that value orientation significantly elucidated 21% of the variability in non-extractive behavior and 26% of extractive behavior variance in a direct way and through beliefs in climate change. The recommendations have been presented to increase farmer's efforts to reduce their ecological footprint in nature.

The progress and trend of pro-environmental behavior research: a bibliometrics-based visualization analysis.

Pro-environmental behavior (PEB) has always been a hot topic in academic and practical, and it is highly necessary to explore the research progress and development trend of PEB. Based on 1038 relevant literatures published and the Web of Science core database, this paper used citation analysis, co-word analysis and cluster analysis methods to systematically analyze the dynamic evolution process of PEB's research topics, knowledge base and subject areas. The results show that PEB research is currently in a period of rapid growth. And PEB research presents typical multidisciplinary characteristics, mainly focuses on Psychology-Education-Social, Economics-Economic-Political, Environmental-Toxicology-Nutrition and other disciplines. Then, this study also finds that the PEB research hotspots mainly concentrated in seven directions such as "Environmental cognition, emotion and motivation process", etc., which can be further classified into three horizontal levels and three vertical levels. This study will provide valuable theoretical and practical reference for the future research of PEB.

The differences of climate change perception, responsibility and climate-friendly behavior among generations and the main determinants of youth's climate-friendly actions in the EU.

The role of society to mitigate climate change is particularly important. However, generations, different age cohorts are differently related to and concerned about climate change. The main criticism of the young generation is that they talk about climate change a lot but do not behave in a climate-friendly manner. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the difference of climate change perception, responsibility and climate-friendly behavior among Baby Boomer generation, Generations X, Y and Z in all European Union (EU) countries. After applying the Chi-square test, the results showed that younger people in the EU tend to have the perception of climate change more often than their older counterparts. Moreover, people from younger generations tend to place responsibility of solving climate change on the business/industrial sectors and environmental groups more often than the preceding generations do. Furthermore, more of young people assumed personal responsibility, used environmentally friendly alternatives to personal cars, and considered carbon footprint before purchasing a product, as opposed to older generations. However, the youth separated waste and decreased the use of disposable items less comparing with older generations. Applying binary logistic regression, the results showed that climate change perception and placement of responsibility on environmental groups positively and statistically significantly influenced all climate-friendly actions of the youth. Personal responsibility statistically significantly decreased probability of all climate-friendly actions. Responsibility placement on the government and business/industrial sectors reduced the probability to carry out waste reduction behavior. Thus, this study revealed that young people are not always climate-friendly, and this study provides the insights into how to promote climate-friendly behavior among youths.

How gamified cooperation and competition motivate low-carbon actions: An investigation of gamification in a popular online payment platform in China.

Climate change caused by excessive carbon emission has become one of the most severe problems facing the world's ecosystems and human society. Promoting low-carbon actions is an effective means of alleviating climate problems. Gamified interactions have recently emerged as a promising and practical idea to promote low-carbon actions; however, research on the effect of gamification design on consumers' pro-environmental behavior is still at a nascent stage. This study tried to explore the impact mechanisms of two common gamified interactions, competition and cooperation, on consumers' low-carbon actions through goal-framing theory. The proposed hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model based on survey data collected from Ant Forest users on Alipay, one of the popular online payment platforms in China. The results show that while both cooperative and competitive interactions could promote users' low-carbon actions, the incentive effect of cooperation was more significant. In addition, cooperative interactions stimulated users' normative, hedonic, and gain motivations to adopt low-carbon actions, whereas competitive interactions only motivated hedonic and gain goals. The study findings provide new insights into the role of gamification in influencing low-carbon behaviors and offer practical guidance for the design of gamification for related green and low-carbon platforms.

Assessing green management in health belief model: An analysis of a post-disaster rural context.

Previous studies have highlighted ecosystem-based management (EBM) related pro-environmental behaviors. EBM is based on the engagement of local communities in disaster-affected areas. However, few studies have explored the association between residents' health conditions and their perceptions of and capacities for EBM in post-disaster community development. Residents' health and psychological well-being is essential to maintaining their EBM-related motivations. Thus, this article investigated whether the awareness of personal health and Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) can be reflected in pro-environmental behaviors in the health belief model (HBM) in post-disaster contexts. As part of a case study in a disaster-affected rural community in Japan's Miyagi prefecture, a survey was conducted and the hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model (SEM). The Great East Japan Earthquakes and Tsunami in 2011 affected the study site, in the Maehama community, the Camellia Forest Project was initiated following this disaster as part of the ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) initiatives for post-disaster development. The empirical results confirmed the indirect influence of Eco-DRR factors and health perceptions on pro-environmental behaviors. In particular, the analysis showed that among HBM's perceived factors, perceived benefits of health promotion, Eco-DRR perceptions, social cohesion were positively associated with residents' ordinary green management. It also showed that green self-efficacy positively affected ordinary green management. Mowing/weeding experience was a significant representative cue to action and had a positive effect on residents' green management. Thus, this article shows that practicing a healthy lifestyle through green management, integrating Eco-DRR development benefits the sustainability and environmental health of resilient communities.

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Address Consumer Food Waste with a Technology-aided Tailored Sustainability Intervention.

There is growing concern whether pro-environmental behavioral interventions can generate sufficient reductions in carbon emissions to address climate change. While many have suggested enhanced tailoring of interventions to increase effect sizes, and while individual tailoring is common among health interventions, little is known about how individual tailoring may impact effect sizes for pro-environmental behavioral interventions. Using a novel technology-aided delivery and measurement approach, we conduct a randomized controlled trial featuring an individually tailored intervention focused on reducing the amount of food wasted by participants over approximately one week in their normal living conditions. We find large significant effects for the focal area of food wasted during dining (a 79% reduction), a null effect on food wasted over all household stages (preparation, dining and clean outs), and desirable or null effects for critical antecedent (e.g., waste during preparation, continued purchases of fresh produce), concurrent (e.g., food selection and consumption), and attendant behaviors (e.g., waste from storage clean outs, avoiding waste deposits in landfills).