Explaining energy conservation and environmental citizenship behaviors using the value-belief-norm framework

Abstract

Despite decades of research, uncertainty remains about what motivates individuals to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The multifaceted and complex nature of energy conservation, like other forms of pro-environmental behavior, still poses a challenge to efforts at accurately explaining or predicting it. This paper examines the extent to which variables in the value-belief-norm framework are able to explain engagement in energy conservation and environmental citizenship behavior in an institutional setting. The results indicate that value-belief-norm constructs, which largely reflect environmental considerations, were more successful at explaining subjects’ pro-environmental citizenship behavior than their energy conservation behavior. Individuals’ personal norms and self-transcendence values were found to be the most influential precursors of their pro-environmental behavior. Subjects’ behavior-specific beliefs also influenced their pro-environmental behavior and were mediated by their personal norms. The implications of our results for the design of pro–energy conservation intervention are discussed