Promoting adolescents' pro-environmental behavior: A motive-alignment approach.
Judith van de Wetering1, Stathis Grapsas2, Astrid Poorthuis1
1Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Summary
Framing pro-environmental actions as a personal choice or rebellion boosts adolescent engagement. Mandatory framing, however, decreases pro-environmental behaviors, highlighting the importance of autonomy in climate action.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Psychology
- Adolescent Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Adolescents express significant concern regarding climate change.
- Understanding factors that motivate pro-environmental behavior in youth is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if framing pro-environmental behavior in alignment with adolescents' autonomy motive enhances engagement.
- To compare the effects of volition-alignment, rebellion-alignment, and misalignment on pro-environmental actions.
Main Methods:
- A preregistered randomized experiment was conducted with 319 Dutch adolescents (ages 12-17).
- Participants viewed videos explaining climate change causes and framing pro-environmental behavior as voluntary, rebellious, or mandatory.
- Pro-environmental behavior intentions, petitioning, and donating behaviors were measured.
Main Results:
- Framing pro-environmental behavior as an opportunity to rebel (rebellion-alignment) increased intentions and petitioning behavior.
- Framing behavior as mandatory (misalignment) decreased pro-environmental donating behavior.
- Effect sizes for the observed changes were small to medium.
Conclusions:
- Aligning pro-environmental actions with adolescents' autonomy motive, particularly through framing it as a choice or rebellion, can effectively promote engagement.
- Mandatory framing may inadvertently reduce pro-environmental behaviors.
- These findings offer a proof of concept for using motive alignment strategies to foster youth climate action.
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