Barriers to pro-environmental behaviour

Pro-environmental behaviour is behaviour that a person consciously chooses in order to minimize the negative impact of their actions on the environment.[1] Barriers to pro-environmental behaviour are the numerous factors that hinder individuals when they try to adjust their behaviours toward living more sustainable lifestyles.

Generally, these barriers can be separated into larger categories: psychological, social/cultural, financial and structural. Psychological barriers are considered internal, where an individual's knowledge, beliefs and thoughts affect their behaviour. Social and cultural barriers are contextual, where an individual's behaviour is affected by their surroundings (e.g. neighbourhood, town, city, etc.). Financial barriers are simply a lack of funds to move toward more sustainable behaviour (e.g. new technologies, electric cars). Structural barriers are external and often impossible for an individual to control, such as lack of governmental action, or locality of residence that promotes car dependency as opposed to public transit.

Internal/psychological barriers

Identifying psychological barriers to pro-environmental behaviour is key to the design of successful behaviour change interventions.[2] Scholars have identified several different categories of psychological barriers to pro-environmental action. A known researcher in the field, environmental psychologist Robert Gifford, has identified 33 of these barriers, barriers that he has termed “The Dragons of Inaction.” The Dragons are separated into seven categories: Limited Cognition, Ideologies, Social Comparison, Sunk Costs, Discredence, Perceived Risks, and Limited Behaviour.[3][4] Below are the seven categories, integrated with additional barriers identified by other researchers. Other psychologists have argued that the attempt to identify psychological barriers to environmental behavior is problematic when used to explain societal inaction on climate change.[5]

Limited cognition

Limited cognition barriers are barriers that arise from a lack of knowledge and awareness about environmental issues. For example, with a key environmental issue like climate change, a person might not engage in pro-environmental behaviour because they are: unaware that climate change is occurring; or aware that climate change is an issue, but are ill-informed about the science of climate change; or lacking information about how they could address the issue.[3][6][7]

For those who are aware of current environmental issues, self-efficacy is an important barrier to action, where individuals often feel powerless in achieving large goals such as mitigating global climate change.[8][9] Moreover, lack of motivation to change one's behaviour is correlated with the belief that individuals are incapable of performing effective pro-environmental actions.[10]

Ideologies

Climate denial billboard

Ideological barriers are created by pre-conceived ideas and the way an individual thinks about the world. Ideologies that can create barriers to pro-environmental behaviour can include a strong belief in free-enterprise capitalism, a fatalistic belief that a higher power is in control, and a belief that technology can solve all environmental issues.[3] Accordingly, tactics such as environmental policies have prompted a tendency to struggle against perceived threats to one's freedom and comfortable lifestyle.[11][12] This barrier is namely present in Western countries where individuals enjoy comparatively high levels of objective and subjective wellbeing due to socioeconomic status.[13] It has been noted that to live within environmental limits, there is a need to make changes to the comfortable aspects of Western lifestyles, for example, reducing meat consumption, the use of airplanes, and use of electronic gadgets with short life-spans.[14] Western cultural norms associate meat consumption with wealth, status and luxury,[15] and meat consumption per capita in the richest 15 nations of the world is 750% higher than in the poorest 24 nations.[16] A shift in values may be difficult, as people's life goals are formed by their ideas of social progress, personal status, and success through careers, higher incomes and consumption.[13]

Moreover, there exist deep structural and cultural roots that couple the macro-level of financial, property or labour institutions to the micro-level of individualistic, utilitarian values. These roots are linked to the current economic growth paradigm,[17][18] which can be defined as a worldview that maintains that economic growth is both good and necessary.[19]

Social comparison

North Hills East truck dealer. The Ford F-150 truck has been the best selling vehicle in the United States for some time achieving less than 30mpg on average.

Social comparison barriers include the comparison of actions with those of others to determine the “correct” behaviour, whether it be beneficial or harmful for the environment.[3] This means that social comparison barriers can also facilitate pro-environmental behaviour. For example, people will alter their energy consumption to replicate the reported usage of their neighbours.[4] Moreover, if individuals believe those around them are not actively engaging in pro-environmental behaviour, they are less likely to engage in it themselves because they believe this to be unfair.[4]

Sunk costs

Sunk cost barriers are the investments (not necessarily financial) of an individual that in turn restrict alternative possibilities for change, or in this circumstance, for pro-environmental behaviour. One example of a financial investment is car ownership, where the individual will be less likely to use alternative modes of transportation. Habits are considered a Sunk Costs Dragon as well because they are very difficult to change (e.g. eating habits).[3][4] Individuals are also deeply invested in their life goals and aspirations, even if achieving them will harm the environment.[3] Place attachment is considered here as well, where an individual who feels no place attachment to their home will be less likely to act pro-environmentally in that place than one who loves where they live.[3][4]

Additional barriers are inconvenience and time-related pressures, which are suggested as reasons why individuals go back to unsustainable habits.[9][20] An individual may find it annoying and inconvenient to compost if they do not have access to municipal composting, for example, and if one is pressed for time they may choose to use their car rather than wait for public transit.

Discredence

Discredence barriers generally involve disbelief in environmental issues and/or distrust in government officials and scientists.[3][4] Complete denial of climate change and other environmental issues is becoming less prominent, but it continues to persist.[3][4] Skepticism is still apparent in countries where there are efforts to shape public opinion through mediums such as conservative think tanks and media outlets.[11] Moreover, mass media is the primary source of information on climate change in many countries, therefore depending on the individual, they will either trust or ignore the information they receive which will vary from one media outlet to the next based on different views.[11]

Distrust in government has become a prevalent issue recently. In the United States for example, Americans have been polled every year about their confidence in their country's institutions (e.g. the Supreme Court, Congress, the Presidency, and the health-care establishment), and there has been a reported collapse in trust over time (12% in 2017).[21] From an environmental standpoint, the Trump administration has significantly diminished regulations that were put in place by the former administration to meet environmental standards. Examples of policy changes include pulling out of the Paris Agreement, loosening regulations on toxic air pollution, and issuing an executive order that called for a 30% increase in logging on public lands.[22] There is a 97% scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change,[23] yet there is still not enough being done to meet global temperature targets of staying below a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase (see Paris Agreement).[24][25]

Even in a stable constitutional republic, a cynical or unmoored citizenry presents an opportunity for demagogues and populists. As much as stagnant wages in former manufacturing regions, glaring economic inequality, or white backlash after the Obama Presidency, the country's disillusionment with institutions enabled Donald Trump's election.

— The New Yorker

Perceived risk

Risk perception barriers include worrying about whether financial or temporal investments will pay off.[3] An example of a financial investment is solar panels which are initially costly. A temporal investment can simply be spending the time to do research on the topic instead of doing something else.[4]

There exists the concept of psychological distance, where people tend to discount future risks when making trade-offs between cost and benefits, and instead prioritize immediate day-to-day concerns.[8][12] Spatial distance allows individuals to disregard any risks, and instead consider them more likely for other people and places than for themselves.[8][12] This barrier can simply be thought of as "out of sight, out of mind." Additionally, people typically underestimate the likelihood of being affected by natural disasters,[11] as well as the degree to which others are concerned about environmental issues.[26] Furthermore, the human brain privileges experience over analysis: personal experiences with extreme weather events can influence risk perceptions, beliefs, behaviour and policy support, whereas statistical information by itself means very little to most people.[8]

Limited behaviour

Limited behaviour barriers may include people choosing easier, yet less effective, pro-environmental behavioural changes (e.g. recycling, metal straws), and the rebound effect, which occurs when a positive environmental behaviour is followed by one that negates it (e.g. saving money with an electric car to then buy a plane ticket).[3]

Contextual barriers

Social and cultural factors

Research has also shown that how people support and engage in pro-environmental behaviour is also affected by contextual factors (i.e. social, economic, and cultural); people with diverse cultural backgrounds have different perspectives and priorities, and thus, they may respond to the same policies and interventions in different ways with regionally differentiated world views playing an important role.[27] This means that people will use different excuses for their behaviours depending on contextual factors.[10][28][29] Research has shown that information has a greater impact on behaviour if it is tailored to the personal situations of consumers and resonates with their important values.[11] This suggests that, for example, policies developed to reduce and mitigate climate change would be more effective if they were developed specifically for the people whose behaviour they were targeting.

People are social beings who respond to group norms: behaviour and decision-making has been shown to be affected by social norms and contexts.[4][8][20]

Demographic variables like age, gender and education, can have a variety of effects on pro-environmental behaviour, depending on the issue and context.[30] However, when considering the effects of socio-demographics on individual perceptions of climate change, a recent study reported a meta-analysis which found that the largest demographic correlation with the belief of human-caused climate change is political affiliation (e.g. conservative views often mean less support for climate mitigation).[31][32]

Economic factors

The cost of sustainable alternatives and financial measures used to support new technologies can also be a barrier to pro-environmental behaviour.[9] Households may have severe budgetary constraints that discourage them from investing in energy-efficient measures. In addition, individuals may fear that project costs will not be recovered prior to a future sale of a property.[27] Economic factors are not just barriers to pro-environmental behaviour for individual households but are also a barrier on the international scale. Developing countries that rely on coal and fossil fuels may not have the funding or infrastructure to switch to more sustainable energy sources. Therefore, help from developed countries, with regards to cost, may be needed. As nations become more prosperous, their citizens are less concerned with the economic battle for survival and are free to pursue postmaterialistic ideals such as political freedom, personal fulfillment, and environmental conservation. [33] In other cases however, environment-friendly behaviours may be undertaken for non-environmental reasons, such as to save money or to improve health (e.g. biking or walking instead of driving).[12][34]

Structural barriers

Structural barriers are large-scale systemic barriers that may be perceived as being objective and external,[35] and can be highly influential and near impossible to control, even when one wishes to adopt more pro-environmental behaviour. For example, lack of organizational and governmental action on sustainability is considered a barrier for individuals looking to participate in sustainable practices.[9] Further examples of structural barriers include: low problem awareness at the local level caused by a low priority for adaptation at higher institutional levels, and missing leadership by certain key actors leading to an absence of appropriate decision-making routines.[6] Other structural barriers reported from a Vancouver-based study include: term limits imposed on politicians that affect council's ability to make long-term decisions; budgetary cycles that force planning based on three year terms, rather than long-term planning; and hierarchical systems that inhibit flexibility and innovation.[36]

Research has shown that individuals may not behave in accordance with environmental sustainability when they have little control over the outcome of a situation.[3] An example of a structural choice that can influence an individual's use of high carbon transport, occurs when cities governments allow sprawling neighbourhoods to develop without associated public transit infrastructure.[37]

The concept of barriers has also been defined in relation to adaptive capacity, the ability of a system to respond to environmental changes; a barrier can either be a reason for potential adaptive capacity not being translated into action, or a reason for the existence of low adaptive capacity.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Kollmuss, Anja; Julian Agyeman (2002). "Mind the Gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior?". Environmental Education Research. 8 (3): 239–260. doi:10.1080/13504620220145401. S2CID 16062059.
  2. ^ Clayton, Susan D. (2018). Psychology and climate change : human perceptions, impacts, and responses. Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier. ISBN 9780128131305. OCLC 1082444987.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Gifford, Robert (2011). "The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation". American Psychologist. 66 (4): 290–302. doi:10.1037/a0023566. ISSN 1935-990X. PMID 21553954. S2CID 8356816.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Dragons of Inaction – Diagnosing and Slaying the Barriers to Positive Climate and Environmental Action". www.dragonsofinaction.com. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
  5. ^ Schmitt, Michael T.; Neufeld, Scott D.; Mackay, Caroline M. L.; Dys-Steenbergen, Odilia (2020). "The Perils of Explaining Climate Inaction in Terms of Psychological Barriers". Journal of Social Issues. 76: 123–135. doi:10.1111/josi.12360. ISSN 1540-4560. S2CID 213436745.
  6. ^ a b c Eisenack, Klaus; Moser, Susanne C.; Hoffmann, Esther; Klein, Richard J. T.; Oberlack, Christoph; Pechan, Anna; Rotter, Maja; Termeer, Catrien J. A. M. (1 November 2014). "Explaining and overcoming barriers to climate change adaptation". Nature Climate Change. 4 (10): 867–872. Bibcode:2014NatCC...4..867E. doi:10.1038/nclimate2350. ISSN 1758-678X.
  7. ^ Parag, Yael; Strickland, Deborah (2009), Personal Carbon Budgeting: What people need to know, learn and have in order to manage and live within a carbon budget, and the policies that could support them. UKERC Research Report, Demand Reduction Theme, Unpublished, doi:10.13140/rg.2.1.3144.4560
  8. ^ a b c d e van der Linden, Sander; Maibach, Edward; Leiserowitz, Anthony (1 November 2015). "Improving Public Engagement With Climate Change". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 10 (6): 758–763. doi:10.1177/1745691615598516. ISSN 1745-6916. PMID 26581732. S2CID 3117859.
  9. ^ a b c d Axon, Stephen (1 November 2017). ""Keeping the ball rolling": Addressing the enablers of, and barriers to, sustainable lifestyles". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 52: 11–25. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.05.002. ISSN 0272-4944.
  10. ^ a b Landry, Nicholas; Gifford, Robert; Milfont, Taciano L.; Weeks, Andrew; Arnocky, Steven (1 February 2018). "Learned helplessness moderates the relationship between environmental concern and behavior". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 55: 18–22. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2017.12.003. ISSN 0272-4944.
  11. ^ a b c d e Clayton, Susan; Devine-Wright, Patrick; Stern, Paul C.; Whitmarsh, Lorraine; Carrico, Amanda; Steg, Linda; Swim, Janet; Bonnes, Mirilia (1 July 2015). "Psychological research and global climate change". Nature Climate Change. 5 (7): 640–646. Bibcode:2015NatCC...5..640C. doi:10.1038/nclimate2622. hdl:11370/7065851e-dd9d-4f69-9aec-346d5df33260. ISSN 1758-678X. S2CID 83681827.
  12. ^ a b c d Gifford, Robert (2014-01-03). "Environmental Psychology Matters". Annual Review of Psychology. 65 (1): 541–579. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115048. ISSN 0066-4308. PMID 24050189. S2CID 26496067.
  13. ^ a b Büchs, Milena; Koch, Max (1 January 2019). "Challenges for the degrowth transition: The debate about wellbeing". Futures. 105: 155–165. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2018.09.002. ISSN 0016-3287. S2CID 149731503.
  14. ^ Koch, Max; Buch-Hansen, Hubert; Fritz, Martin (1 August 2017). "Shifting Priorities in Degrowth Research: An Argument for the Centrality of Human Needs". Ecological Economics. 138: 74–81. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.03.035. ISSN 0921-8009.
  15. ^ Ruby, Matthew B. (1 February 2012). "Vegetarianism. A blossoming field of study". Appetite. 58 (1): 141–150. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2011.09.019. ISSN 0195-6663. PMID 22001025. S2CID 30991920.
  16. ^ Tilman, David; Clark, Michael (1 November 2014). "Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health". Nature. 515 (7528): 518–522. Bibcode:2014Natur.515..518T. doi:10.1038/nature13959. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 25383533. S2CID 4453972.
  17. ^ Castoriadis, Cornelius; Murphy, John (1 February 1985). "Reflections on 'Rationality' and 'Development'". Thesis Eleven. 10–11 (1): 18–36. doi:10.1177/072551368501000103. ISSN 0725-5136. S2CID 142987710.
  18. ^ Kallis, Giorgos (1 March 2011). "In defence of degrowth". Ecological Economics. 70 (5): 873–880. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.12.007. ISSN 0921-8009.
  19. ^ Kallis, Giorgos; Kostakis, Vasilis; Lange, Steffen; Muraca, Barbara; Paulson, Susan; Schmelzer, Matthias (2018). "Research On Degrowth". Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 43 (1): 291–316. doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-102017-025941. S2CID 158876694.
  20. ^ a b Gifford, Robert (1 July 2015). "The road to climate hell". New Scientist. 227 (3029): 28–33. Bibcode:2015NewSc.227Q..28G. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(15)30744-2. ISSN 0262-4079.
  21. ^ Coll, Steve (2017-12-22). "The Distrust That Trump Relies Upon". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  22. ^ "15 ways the Trump administration has changed environmental policies". Environment. 2019-02-01. Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  23. ^ Cook, John; Oreskes, Naomi; Doran, Peter T.; Anderegg, William R. L.; Verheggen, Bart; Maibach, Ed W.; Carlton, J. Stuart; Lewandowsky, Stephan; Skuce, Andrew G. (1 April 2016). "Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming". Environmental Research Letters. 11 (4): 048002. Bibcode:2016ERL....11d8002C. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/048002. hdl:1983/34949783-dac1-4ce7-ad95-5dc0798930a6. ISSN 1748-9326. S2CID 470384.
  24. ^ "UNITED NATIONS Climate Change Summit". www.un.org. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  25. ^ "Global Warming Solutions". National Geographic. 2019-01-24. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  26. ^ Geiger, Nathaniel; Swim, Janet K. (1 September 2016). "Climate of silence: Pluralistic ignorance as a barrier to climate change discussion". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 47: 79–90. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.05.002. ISSN 0272-4944.
  27. ^ a b Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014), "Integrated Risk and Uncertainty Assessment of Climate Change Response Policies", Climate Change 2014 Mitigation of Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, pp. 151–206, doi:10.1017/cbo9781107415416.008, hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-002D-DF30-A, ISBN 9781107415416
  28. ^ Eom, Kimin; Kim, Heejung S.; Sherman, David K. (1 July 2018). "Social class, control, and action: Socioeconomic status differences in antecedents of support for pro-environmental action". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 77: 60–75. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2018.03.009. ISSN 0022-1031. S2CID 55175470.
  29. ^ Gifford, Robert; Nilsson, Andreas (1 January 2014). "Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: A review". International Journal of Psychology. 49 (3): 141–57. doi:10.1002/ijop.12034. ISSN 0020-7594. PMID 24821503. S2CID 25554195.
  30. ^ Clayton; Manning, eds. (2018). "Understanding responses to climate change: Psychological barriers to mitigation and a new theory of behavioral choice". Psychology and Climate Change: Human Perceptions, Impacts and Responses. pp. 161–183.
  31. ^ Hornsey, Matthew J.; Harris, Emily A.; Bain, Paul G.; Fielding, Kelly S. (2016-02-22). "Meta-analyses of the determinants and outcomes of belief in climate change" (PDF). Nature Climate Change. 6 (6): 622–626. Bibcode:2016NatCC...6..622H. doi:10.1038/nclimate2943. ISSN 1758-678X. S2CID 147349580.
  32. ^ Brick, Cameron; Lai, Calvin K. (2018). "Explicit (but not implicit) environmentalist identity predicts pro-environmental behavior and policy preferences". Journal of Environmental Psychology. 58. Elsevier BV: 8–17. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2018.07.003. ISSN 0272-4944. S2CID 149908016.
  33. ^ Pisano, Ignacio; Lubell, Mark (28 July 2016). "Environmental Behavior in Cross-National Perspective". Environment and Behavior. 49 (1): 31–58. doi:10.1177/0013916515600494. S2CID 143367118.
  34. ^ Whitmarsh, Lorraine (1 March 2009). "Behavioural responses to climate change: Asymmetry of intentions and impacts" (PDF). Journal of Environmental Psychology. 29 (1): 13–23. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.05.003. ISSN 0272-4944. S2CID 8355682.
  35. ^ "Understanding responses to climate change: Psychological barriers to mitigation and a new theory of behavioral choice". Psychology and Climate Change. 2018. pp. 161–183.
  36. ^ Burch, Sarah (1 December 2010). "In pursuit of resilient, low carbon communities: An examination of barriers to action in three Canadian cities". Energy Policy. 38 (12): 7575–7585. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2009.06.070. ISSN 0301-4215.
  37. ^ Cervero, Robert (1 June 2002). "Built environments and mode choice: toward a normative framework". Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. 7 (4): 265–284. doi:10.1016/s1361-9209(01)00024-4. ISSN 1361-9209.
  • v
  • t
  • e
Environmentalism
  • Outline of environmentalism
Key topicsDisciplinesViews
Philosophical
Political
Religious
Opposition
OffshootsGoalsBy countryIn cultureEnvironmentalists
Notable people
Related topics
icon Environment portal