Internal and external influences on pro-environmental behavior: Participation in a green electricity program

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Abstract

This paper integrates themes from psychology and economics to analyze pro-environmental behavior. Increasingly, both disciplines share an interest in understanding internal and external influences on behavior. In this study, we analyze data from a mail survey of participants and non-participants in a premium-priced, green electricity program. Internal variables consist of a newly developed scale for altruistic attitudes based on the Schwartz norm-activation model, and a modified version of the New Ecological Paradigm scale to measure environmental attitudes. External variables consist of household income and standard socio-demographic characteristics. The two internal variables and two external variables are significant in a logit model of the decision to participate in the program. We then focus on participants in the program and analyze their specific motives for participating. These include motives relating to several concerns: ecosystem health, personal health, environmental quality for residents in southeastern Michigan, global warming, and warm-glow (or intrinsic) satisfaction. In a statistical ranking of the importance of each motive, a biocentric motive ranks first, an altruistic motive ranks second, and an egoistic motive ranks third.

Introduction

For several decades, social scientists have investigated the motivations of individuals who engage in pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Gaining a detailed understanding of why individuals undertake PEB is important for policy makers and researchers seeking solutions to environmental problems that require behavioral change. Many research efforts thus far, however, tend to polarize around predominant themes in specific disciplines. Economists, for example, tend to examine the influence of external conditions, such as income, price, and socio-economic characteristics, upon behavior. Their approach is grounded in neoclassical economic theory, which presupposes that individual decisions are based on a specific definition of rational self-interest. Solutions to environmental problems that reward, penalize or regulate behavior result from this mode of analysis. Psychologists, on the other hand, concentrate on linking internal, or psychological, variables to behavior. Their literature suggests that PEB originates from values, beliefs, and attitudes that orient individuals toward particular actions. Consequently, psychologists recognize awareness, education, guilt, and persuasion as tools for invoking behavioral change.

Despite the dominant role psychologists attribute to internal factors for motivating PEB, a handful of researchers identify the need to formulate an interdisciplinary perspective. Van Liere and Dunlap (1980) argue that researchers should pay equal attention to cognitive variables and demographic determinants that underlie environmental concern. They assert that “the most powerful analyses of the social bases of environmental concern will likely be those which consider both its demographic and cognitive determinants” (p. 194). Messick and Brewer (1983) identify the need for researchers to integrate solutions derived from individual psychological processes and from structural, or external, factors. They fault research conducted within separate disciplines for limiting progress in the study of public-goods provision. Considering PEB in particular, Guagnano, Stern, and Dietz (1995) argue that “science and policy require a socioeconomic theory of behavior that incorporates both external conditions and internal processes” (p. 700). They note that reluctance of applied researchers to merge insights from economics and psychology has led to narrowly defined policies that often fall short of objectives.

Recognition that progress in understanding PEB needs to evolve from combined perspectives is also apparent in the economics literature on the private provision of public goods. From an economic perspective, PEB exemplifies an individual's voluntary effort to provide an environmental public good. Traditional rational-choice models of private provision of a public good suggest that free riding will dominate (Olson, 1965; Cornes & Sandler, 1996). That is, these models predict relatively low levels of privately provided public goods. Empirically observed levels of provision, however, tend to exceed predicted levels (Andreoni, 1988; Piliavin & Charng, 1990). To explain this discrepancy, more recent models examine the role of psychological considerations in motivating private provision of public goods. In general, these models represent “a richer conception of individual utility functions and a base in cognitive psychology that incorporates the power of ideas and emotions in motivating behavior” (Rose-Ackerman, 1996, p. 701). In particular, these models consider different types of altruism and egoism that may influence private provision of a public good (Andreoni, 1990; Weaver, 1996; McConnell, 1997).

This paper integrates elements from psychology and economics to identify key internal and external variables that explain an actual instance of PEB: voluntary participation in a green electricity program. Green electricity refers to electricity that is generated from solar, wind or other renewable energy sources. We analyze participation in Detroit Edison's green electricity program, the SolarCurrents program. The program generates solar electricity from two centralized facilities in the state of Michigan. Solar electricity generated by the program displaces an equivalent amount of electricity generated from fossil fuels. This gives rise to an environmental benefit through a reduction in air pollution emissions. Participation in the SolarCurrents program requires individuals to lease at least one 100-W block of solar electricity service for an additional fee of $6.59 per block per month. This fee is separate from any other electrical service for which a household pays. Thus, participants in the SolarCurrents program reveal economic behavior that is PEB; participants voluntarily pay an additional fee for the environmental benefit of reduced pollution emissions.

Our analysis uses data from a mail survey of 900 participants and non-participants in the SolarCurrents program. We first analyze the decision of whether or not to participate. Internal variables consist of a newly developed scale for altruistic attitudes based on the Schwartz (1977) norm-activation model, and a modified version of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale (Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig, & Jones, 2000) to measure environmental attitudes. External variables consist of household income and standard socio-demographic characteristics. We then focus on only participants in the program and analyze their specific motives for participating. These include motives relating to several concerns: ecosystem health, personal health, environmental quality for residents in southeastern Michigan, global warming, and warm-glow (or intrinsic) satisfaction.

The remainder of this paper proceeds as follows. The next section explores common ground between psychology research on PEB and economic research on the private provision of public goods. We then provide background on the increasing number of green electricity programs in the United States. The Methods section describes our data collection and analytical techniques. The Results section is organized in three subsections relating to: the altruism and NEP scales, the participation decision, and the motives of participants. Finally, results are discussed as they relate to psychological and economic perspectives.

Section snippets

Psychological and economic perspectives on PEB

Psychology research on PEB and economic research on the private provision of public goods reveal the same underlying motive: to characterize individual behavior that results in collective benefits. This section provides a general review of research on this category of behavior from the perspective of both disciplines. An integrated perspective is shown to provide a more complete framework for analyzing PEB and the private provision of environmental public goods.

Much of the psychology research

Green electricity as a household option

Throughout the United States, green electricity is being offered to households as a supplement to electricity derived from fossil fuels and nuclear power. Production of green electricity displaces the pollution emissions and resource consumption associated with electricity generation from conventional fuels. Participants in programs offering green electricity volunteer to pay a price premium to meet part or all of their households’ electricity demand with green electricity. The number of

Methods

Mail surveys were sent to 281 participants and 619 non-participants in Detroit Edison's SolarCurrents program. The sampling regime was choice-based sampling. The 281 participants comprise the complete population of participants, while the sample of 619 non-participants was randomly selected from 80,000 Detroit Edison customers. The survey was administered in the winter of 1998 using the Dillman (1978) Total Design Method. Seventy-two surveys were not deliverable due to address changes. Response

Internal consistency of altruism and NEP scales

Table 1 contains a summary of responses and internal consistency results for the altruism scale. Response categories for each item are “strongly agree”, “somewhat agree”, “unsure”, “somewhat disagree”, and “strongly disagree”. Agreement with items 2, 4, 5, 8, and 9, and disagreement with items 1, 3, 6, and 7 indicate attitudes consistent with the presence of AC, AR, and a personal norm in the Schwartz model. The percentage distributions of responses reveal that respondents tend to have

Summary and conclusions

This research explores complementary explanations of behavior from the psychology literature on PEB and the economics literature on the private provision of public goods. A general review of these literatures suggests that an improved understanding of PEB can result from integrating insights, models, and techniques from the two disciplines. Our analysis of participation in a green electricity program provides an example. Both internal and external influences are statistically significant in a

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments and to Raymond De Young for useful discussions and helpful comments. They also thank Ruth Seleske, Elvana Hammoud, and Norm Stevens from Detroit Edison for information on the SolarCurents program and constructive comments on the survey instrument. Senior authorship is not assigned.

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