Stimulating Pro-Environmental Behaviour by addressing altruistic and biospheric values or egoistic values

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most pressing global issues and there are numerous ways to combat it. One of them is changing human behaviour. People are becoming more aware of their role in climate change, however the necessary change in behaviour to let the climate benefit does not occur. Currently, it is not established what the most effective approach is to influence an increase in pro-environmental behaviour. Research has shown that applying altruistic, biospheric and egoistic values in interventions show promise in affecting pro-environmental behaviour positively. Additional research theorized that applying altruistic and biospheric values to be more effective than egoistic values. This theory is being tested within the current study as a behaviour intervention. 110 participants read a piece of information framed in either an altruistic and biospheric way or in an egoistic way. After having read the information, the participants were instructed to track how often they turn off the light at home in the following 24 hours. Before and after the behaviour intervention the behaviour and pro-environmental attitudes are measured to conclude if these are affected by the values. The results were analysed by way of an independent T-test and a repeated measure ANOVA. The altruistic and biospheric group was not significantly more pro-environmental than the egoistic group and the pro-environmental attitudes did not change significantly. There were several limitations within the study, namely, the lack of a control group and an unreliable pre-measurement of behaviour. Future studies should consider these limitations.