Uncovering Unused Messaging Tools for Motivating Pro-environmental Behavior

Abstract

Environmental knowledge and awareness have small impacts on pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Decades of public information campaigns that inform the public how personal behaviors and consumer choices drive climate change have not changed behavior. Research into motivation for PEB change across disparate fields demonstrates new insights into what motivates behavioral change. This paper provides a review of those literatures, which have not been systematically brought together, in order to generate research questions and propose a new research agenda. The findings indicate the need to test how types of individuals, categorized by what motivates their behaviors, respond to different policy messaging tools.