Work

Positive anticipated affective reactions increase pro-environmental behavior

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: With households accounting for 75% of global carbon emission, we need to find ways to motivate people to increase their climate change mitigating behaviors. Affective reactions have been linked to pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs), but it is unclear if positive (warm glow or hope) or negative (worry or hopelessness) is more impactful in motivating action. In this pre-registered study we used a unique longitudinal dataset from a Swedish sample to reveal that positive affect predicts more engagement in PEBs, and negative affect predicts less engagement in PEBs. A mediation model also suggests that anticipated (i.e., expected feelings of) positive affect is related to past pro-environmental engagement and could partly predict future PEBs. Hence, affective reactions may be one way to increase intrinsic motivation for a more sustainable lifestyle.

Source: iScience

DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112389

Authors: Camilla Strömbäck, Per A. Andersson, Erkin Asutay, Hulda Karlsson-Larsson, Daniel Västfjäll

Institutions: Linköping University, Decision Research

Language: English

Topic: Environmental Education and Sustainability

Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,240