Behavioural responses to climate change: Asymmetry of intentions and impacts

“…or selftranscendent values tend to activate personal norms to take pro-environmental action, if it is believed that environmental conditions threaten things the individual values and that the individual can act to reduce that threat (Stern et al., 1993; Nilsson et al., 2004; Snelgar, 2006).”

“Household energy conservation behaviour is also habitual or financially motivated (Brandon & Lewis, 1999; Kaiser & Wilson, 2004; Lorenzoni, Nicholson-Cole, & Whitmarsh, 2007; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“While this behaviour was found to be weakly correlated with concern about global warming, it appears to be mainly motivated by a desire to save money (Whitmarsh 2009).”

“Indeed there is some evidence that concentrating on a single behaviour could be counter-productive as it can lead individuals to focus their pro-environmental intentions on that particular behaviour rather than on behaviours that may have greater environmental impact [13,14].”

“Over the last few decades, consumers have become concerned about the environmental impact of their food choices, and more consumers are buying organic food to protect the environment (Magnusson, Arvola, Hursti, Åberg, & Sj ¨ od ´ en, 2003; Nie & Zepeda, 2011; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“Climate concern and anxiety in fl uence certain consumption choices (e.g. avoiding waste; Whitmarsh et al. , 2021), but other factors (e.g. price, availability) are stronger predictors (Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“The intentionbehavior-gap describes the failure of the translation from intending to change a behavior to successfully changing it (Ajzen, 2011; Carrington et al., 2010; Gollwitzer & Bargh, 1996; Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002; Schwarzer, 2014; Sheeran, 2002; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“For example, Whitmarsh (2009) argued that the motivation for energy conservation was more often due to financial and health benefits than genuine concern for the environment.”

“…relação com a disposição para lidar com o problema das MCGs. Sundblad, Biel e Gärling (2007) estudaram os julgamentos cognitivos (probabilidade) e afetivos (preocupação) de risco relacionados às mudanças climáticas; enquanto Whitmarsh (2009) investigou respostas comportamentais diante do problema.”

“In response to the failure of neo-classical economic models to significantly influence sustainable consumption behaviour, there has also been recognition that availability of better quality information does not change behaviour (Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“Whitmarsh (2009) also believes that behavioral intentions to address climate change are in fl uenced by perceived responsibility to cause and respond to climate change.”

“‘Greening’ behaviour presents a profound challenge to policymakers, as previous efforts to induce behavioural change in the direction of environmental sustainability have been relatively unsuccessful (Whitmarsh 2009; Fudge and Peters 2011).”

“…pourrait être, comme il a été souvent remarqué dans les publications, que la corrélation entre les attitudes et les actions est rarement forte (Whitmarsh, 2009) et même une attitude forte ne se traduira pas en action à moins qu’une personne ait l’aptitude et la conviction que l’action…”

“When asked what actions they would be willing to undertake (or are already undertaking) to address climate change, recycling, and energy conservation in the home are the most frequently mentioned, while there is considerable resistance to changing travel habits [21, 27].”

“People are often confused, for example, about the types of actions they can take to help reduce climate change, with many people assuming that recycling is a sufficient strategy (Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“Whitmarsh [25] on the asymmetry of intentions and actions concerning climate change).”

“For instance, consistent with the findings of earlier studies, efforts are geared toward low-impact behaviors such as recycling and reducing waste when discussing ways to address climate change, while more impactful actions like driving economically or reducing energy consumption are usually downplayed [101,102].”

“…international research on individualsí knowledge of climate change often revealed that most people, even those considered well-educated, have a minimum understanding of the causes of climate change (Bord, OíConnor, & Fisher, 2000; Hidalgo & Pisano, 2010; OíConnor et al., 1999; Whitmarsh, 2009b).”

“…physical hurdles toward fostering sustained change in behavior (Abrahamse & Steg, 2009; Ajzen, 1991; Brandon & Lewis, 1999; Heiskanen et al., 2010; Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002; Owens & Driffill, 2008; Røpke, 2009; Steg & Vlek, 2009; Whitmarsh, 2009; Wilhite, Nakagami, Masuda, Yamaga, & Haneda, 1996).”

“This tendency was confirmed for more specific dimensions of PEBs as follows: older people were more likely to conduct waste prevention (Barr 2003; Kurisu and Bortoleto 2011); recycling (Barr 2003) and energy saving (Whitmarsh 2009) behaviours.”

“For illustration obtaining items that devour less vitality gives natural and financial benefits [16]..”

“In addition to purely environmental reasons, other motivations such as social, economic, political or health motivations are often ignored (Hart, 2011; Hoppner & Whitmarsh, 2011; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“While a number of researchers from Hedges (1991) to Whitmarsh (2009) have found that money rather than environmental issues motivates people to save energy, findings about grants have been almost incidental to research about other aspects of energy efficiency.”

“Other work has found that the perception that climate change only poses a threat to ecosystems, distant populations and places, or future generations can be linked to low perceptions of the relevance of climate change to everyday life (Leiserowitz, 2006; Dilling & Moser, 2007; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“While there is evidence of considerable uncertainty concerning what behaviors will help slow or halt climate change (Whitmarsh, 2009; Attari et al., 2010; Reynolds et al., 2010), there is also evidence indicating that beliefs about what actions will be effective and what is feasible influence both…”

“…the adoption of energy-saving technologies is not driven exclusively by financial reasons (i.e. saving on energy bills), but is also determined by pro-social behaviour (i.e. activities that are costly to those who undertake them and primarily benefit others) (see, for example, Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“The knowledge development on global warming has led to the awareness of many customers to engage in "green consumption" (Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“…et al., 2016; Schleich et al., 2019b), but appear to be less relevant for predicting high-cost investments such as thermal retrofit or low-energy houses (e.g., Whitmarsh, 2009; Ramos et al., 2016; Olsthoorn et al., 2019), thus suggesting a trade-off between environmental and financial concerns.”

“Yet, the level of public engagement is low and pro-environmental behavior (i.e. support for renewable energy) is even less common (Whitmarsh, 2009; Moloney & Strengers, 2014).”

“Increase in the number of the scientific research and findings about human caused-climate change are another indicator for threat to human-beings and the environment [32].”

“They also tend to overem-phasize the impacts of deforestation rather than climate impact from fossil fuel consumption (Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“By and large, the objects of conduct estimation lie on a continuum that is the context of dependent responses and general characteristics of a person (Yoder et al., 2018; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“Furthermore, due to their cross-situational influences, environmental motivation might result in a spill-over of environmentally-friendly behaviour to different areas (Whitmarsh 2009).”

“In subsequent years, interest in energy behaviour has been driven by other factors such as global climate change (Abrahamse, Steg, Vlek, & Rothengatter, 2005; Kempton et al., 1992; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“The challenge of limited sustainability awareness and knowledge in the sub-Saharan African region may be exacerbated by the presence of an ‘information vacuum’ and communication asymmetry that poses as a barrier to relevant stakeholder participation in collaborative sustainability actions [13, 38].”

“Despite the focus from a policy perspective on the individual’s responsibility, neoclassical economic models have failed to significantly influence sustainable consumption behaviour, nor has the availability of better-quality information changed behaviour [50].”

“Gifford (2011) conceptualised worldviews as another of the ‘dragons’ acting as barriers to climate change adaptation (Whitmarsh 2009; Whitmarsh and O’Neill 2010).”

“Email: k.avramides@ioe.ac.uk Interactive Learning Environments, 2016 Vol. 24, No. 1, 33–48, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2013.817438 have high impacts but are inconvenient (Lorenzoni, Nicholsoncole, & Whitmarsh, 2007; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“The need for collective action also was demonstrated by Whitmarsh (2009) who concluded that participants in a study on how people respond to climate change were unwilling to make sacrifices to their comfortable standards of living when they perceive that similar action and responsibility for…”

“Energy profiles are influenced by cultural, demographic and social variables which are inclusive of gender dynamics and can be used as an indicator of the efficacy of climate change mitigation strategies (Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“Yet while some citizens in the UK purchase energy-saving lamps or choose to own fewer vehicles, surveys show a continual rise in energy consumption year after year due to lack of participation by the general public at large (Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“Sampling UK adults, Whitmarsh (2009) [9] reported that these people tended to detach themselves from the causes and impacts of climate change and had contradictory ideas about the reality and severity of climate change.”

“Algumas podem ser melhor compreendidas e de fácil execução, outras podem ser mais complexas e não serem conhecidas ou visualizadas pelas pessoas (Whitmarsh, 2009), aspectos diretamente relacionados às dimensões temporal e espacial da percepção das MCGs.”

“…focusing on climate change, the relationships between knowledge and attitudes, attitudes and intentions, intentions and observed behaviour, and behaviour and environmental impact have all been criticised for their weakness (Giff ord et al., 2011; Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“For instance, the best predictors of energy use tend to be nonpsychological factors, such as household income, geographic location and other sociodemographic factors (Abrahamse and Steg, 2009; Gatersleben et al., 2002; Hunecke et al., 2007; Whitmarsh, 2009).”

“According to research [42], younger people are generally more aware of environmental issues and are more likely to take actions that support the environment than older people.”

“Mahar et al. (2007) and Whitmarsh (2009) evaluated the solid waste management (SWM) practices in urban areas of Pakistan.”