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Green behavior, green self-image, and subjective well-being: Separating affective and cognitive relationships

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  • Welsch, Heinz
  • Binder, Martin
  • Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin

Abstract

Green lifestyles – understood as encompassing both pro-environmental behaviors and green self-image – have been shown to be positively associated with subjective well-being, but the pertinent literature pays little attention to the difference between “cognitive” and “affective” well-being. Using UK panel data and drawing on the mediator model of life satisfaction, we show that the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and life satisfaction relies mostly on the affective channel, which mediates the behavior-satisfaction relationship. The often-found association between green behavior and life satisfaction seems thus to be driven by a positive contribution to affect, which the individual – in turn - uses as one element of her cognitive life evaluation. Green self-image, on the other hand, is directly related to life satisfaction and this relationship is not mediated strongly by affect. We interpret these findings with regard to the (affective) “warm glow” of acting pro-socially for green behavior, whereas green self-image is predominantly a cognitive-evaluative construct.

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  • Welsch, Heinz & Binder, Martin & Blankenberg, Ann-Kathrin, 2021. "Green behavior, green self-image, and subjective well-being: Separating affective and cognitive relationships," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:179:y:2021:i:c:s0921800920300781
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106854
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    Cited by:

    1. Thilo K.G. Haverkamp & Heinz Welsch & Andreas Ziegler, 2022. "The Relationship between Pro-environmental Behavior, Economic Preferences, and Life Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from Germany," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202204, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    2. Echeverría, Lucía & Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2022. "Green mobility and well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    3. Aijun Guo & Xiaoyun Wei & Fanglei Zhong & Penglong Wang & Xiaoyu Song, 2022. "Does Cognition of Resources and the Environment Affect Farmers’ Production Efficiency? Study of Oasis Agriculture in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, April.
    4. Yuan Wu & Jin Zhang & Shoulin Liu & Lianrui Ma, 2022. "Does Government-Led Publicity Enhance Corporate Green Behavior? Empirical Evidence from Green Xuanguan in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-32, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Subjective well-being; Life satisfaction; Pro-environmental behavior; Self-image; Mediator model; Affect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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