Home, Car Use, and Vacation: The Structure of Environmentally Significant Individual Behavior. (May 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bratt, Christopher; Stern, Paul C.; Matthies, Ellen; Nenseth, Vibeke
• Is Part Of: Environment and behavior. Volume 47:Number 4(2015:May)
• Page Start: 436
• Page End: 473
• Publication Date: 2015-05
• Subjects: environmentally significant behavior -- sustainable consumption -- surveys -- confirmatory factor analysis; Human ecology -- Periodicals; 304.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0013916514525038
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-9165

Abstract

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.