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Motivating environment protection by elevating perceived control.

Katharina A Schwarz1, Sarah Meier2, Julia Menzel2

  • 1Department of Psychology, Trier University.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Enhancing citizens' sense of agency (SoA), or perceived control, can motivate pro-environmental behavior. This study shows that increasing SoA through interactive decision-making simulations is key to fostering sustainable habits.

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Area of Science:

  • Environmental Psychology
  • Behavioral Science
  • Sustainability Studies

Background:

  • Global sustainability requires significant shifts in human behavior towards pro-environmental actions.
  • Motivating citizens for everyday sustainable choices is a critical challenge.
  • Sense of agency (SoA), or perceived control, is a key psychological factor in action motivation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate motivating strategies for pro-environmental behavior using a novel narrative-interactive choice paradigm.
  • To investigate the role of sense of agency (SoA) in facilitating pro-environmental decisions.
  • To explore how different prompt variants influence SoA and subsequent pro-environmental behavior.

Main Methods:

  • Conducted a series of experiments with 521 participants.
  • Developed a narrative-interactive choice elements paradigm simulating everyday decision-making.
  • Implemented prompt variants (color-coding vs. consequence information) to manipulate SoA.

Main Results:

  • Increased SoA was significantly associated with higher pro-environmental behavior.
  • Prompt variants during decision-making influenced pro-environmental behavior.
  • Participant attitude toward environmental protection strongly correlated with SoA and pro-environmental behavior.

Conclusions:

  • Optimizing sense of agency (SoA) is a promising strategy for fostering sustainability behavior.
  • The narrative-interactive choice paradigm effectively simulates decision-making to test motivational strategies.
  • SoA plays a crucial role in motivating individuals towards sustainable actions.