IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i17p12803-d1224201.html

The Role of Personality in the Adoption of Pro-Environmental Behaviors through the Lens of the Value-Belief-Norm Theory

Author

Listed:
  • J. Hidalgo-Crespo

    (G-SCOP Laboratory, School of Industrial Engineering, Grenoble Alpes University, CNRS, G-SCOP, 38000 Grenoble, France
    Facultad de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil 090510, Ecuador)

  • Andrés Velastegui-Montoya

    (Facultad de Ingeniería en Ciencias de la Tierra, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Guayaquil P.O. Box 9015863, Ecuador
    Centro de Investigaciones y Proyectos Aplicados a las Ciencias de la Tierra, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Guayaquil P.O. Box 9015863, Ecuador)

  • J. L. Amaya-Rivas

    (Facultad de Ingeniería Mecánica y Ciencias de la Producción, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Guayaquil P.O. Box 9015863, Ecuador)

  • M. Soto

    (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidade da Coruña, 15071 A Coruña, Spain)

  • Andreas Riel

    (G-SCOP Laboratory, School of Industrial Engineering, Grenoble Alpes University, CNRS, G-SCOP, 38000 Grenoble, France)

Abstract

The present study investigated citizens’ self-reported pro-environmental behaviors by adopting a survey and bootstrapping via structural equation modeling for five different personality traits. Adopting one traditional psycho-social theory, this study investigates how motivations, values, intentions, norms, and behaviors are connected by using different constructs from the value-belief-norm theory extended with external influences and three different pro-environmental behaviors, namely, waste preventer, green consumer, and avoider, and how the connections change between different personality traits from the Big Five personality test, namely, openness, extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and consciousness. According to this study, personal conscience may inspire environmentally beneficial behaviors like green purchasing and waste reduction when appealing to the emotions of the general public. As a result, strengthening the population’s subjective norms requires interventions that concentrate on communication tactics to raise knowledge of penalties and obligations for communal advantages.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Hidalgo-Crespo & Andrés Velastegui-Montoya & J. L. Amaya-Rivas & M. Soto & Andreas Riel, 2023. "The Role of Personality in the Adoption of Pro-Environmental Behaviors through the Lens of the Value-Belief-Norm Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-25, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:12803-:d:1224201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/12803/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/12803/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thøgersen, John & Noblet, Caroline, 2012. "Does green consumerism increase the acceptance of wind power?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 854-862.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:bcp:journl:v:9:y:2025:i:11:p:1051-1071 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Muñoz-Muñoz, E. & Crespo-Cebada, E. & Mirón-Sanguino, A.S. & Díaz-Caro, C., 2025. "Investors personality correlates with sustainability preferences in investment – A choice experiment with Spanish investors," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    3. Ma, Mengqi & Radzi, Naziatul Aziah Mohd & Liu, Yixin & Saidi, Normaizatul Akma, 2024. "The Influence of Economic Development and Government Investment on Pro-Environmental Behavior in China," Asian Journal of Applied Economics, Kasetsart University, Center for Applied Economics Research, vol. 31(01), January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gómez, Patricia & Shaikh, Nazrul I. & Erkoc, Murat, 2024. "Continuous improvement in the efficient use of energy in office buildings through peers effects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    2. Chad M. Baum & Christian Gross, 2017. "Sustainability policy as if people mattered: developing a framework for environmentally significant behavioral change," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 53-95, April.
    3. Hojnik, Jana & Ruzzier, Mitja & Fabri, Stephanie & Klopčič, Alenka Lena, 2021. "What you give is what you get: Willingness to pay for green energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 733-746.
    4. Busse, Maria & Siebert, Rosemarie, 2018. "Acceptance studies in the field of land use—A critical and systematic review to advance the conceptualization of acceptance and acceptability," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 235-245.
    5. Nauges, Céline & Wheeler, Sarah Ann, 2017. "The Complex Relationship Between Households' Climate Change Concerns and Their Water and Energy Mitigation Behaviour," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 87-94.
    6. Mirko Duradoni & Giulia Valdrighi & Alessia Donati & Maria Fiorenza & Luisa Puddu & Andrea Guazzini, 2024. "Development and Validation of the Readiness to Change Scale (RtC) for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-27, May.
    7. Jenny Doorn & Hans Risselada & Stephanie M. Rizio & Mengfei Ye, 2025. "(Un)intended spillovers of green government policies: The case of plastic regulations," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 490-512, March.
    8. Cha, Min-kyeong & Struthers, Cory L. & Brown, Marilyn A. & Kale, Snehal & Chapman, Oliver, 2024. "Toward residential decarbonization: Analyzing social-psychological drivers of household co-adoption of rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and efficient HVAC systems in Georgia, U.S," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    9. Astrid Buchmayr & Luc Van Ootegem & Jo Dewulf & Elsy Verhofstadt, 2021. "Understanding Attitudes towards Renewable Energy Technologies and the Effect of Local Experiences," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-23, November.
    10. Sai Leung Ng, 2023. "The role of risk perception, prior experience, and sociodemographics in disaster preparedness and emergency response toward typhoons in Hong Kong," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 116(1), pages 905-936, March.
    11. Johan Jansson & Jonas Nilsson & Frida Modig & Gabriella Hed Vall, 2017. "Commitment to Sustainability in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: The Influence of Strategic Orientations and Management Values," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 69-83, January.
    12. Lin Xu & Maoliang Ling & Yujie Lu & Meng Shen, 2017. "Understanding Household Waste Separation Behaviour: Testing the Roles of Moral, Past Experience, and Perceived Policy Effectiveness within the Theory of Planned Behaviour," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-27, April.
    13. Jia Wang & Yangli Gu & Haohang Xin & Xiaomei Wang, 2022. "Influence of Appeal Type and Message Framing on Residents’ Intent to Engage in Pro-Environmental Behavior," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-27, November.
    14. Inês Teotónio & Carlos Oliveira Cruz & Cristina Matos Silva & José Morais, 2020. "Investing in Sustainable Built Environments: The Willingness to Pay for Green Roofs and Green Walls," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-14, April.
    15. Shu Yang & Peng Cheng & Shanyong Wang & Jun Li, 2021. "Towards Sustainable Cities: The Spillover Effects of Waste-Sorting Policies on Sustainable Consumption," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-16, October.
    16. Cristiano Codagnone & Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri & Francesco Bogliacino & Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva & George Gaskell & Andriy Ivchenko & Pietro Ortoleva & Francesco Mureddu, 2016. "Labels as nudges? An experimental study of car eco-labels," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 33(3), pages 403-432, December.
    17. Zhou, Angela & Thomaschke, Roland & Wessels, Andreas & Glunz, Stefan & Speck, Thomas & Kiesel, Andrea, 2024. "(Not) in my city: An explorative study on social acceptance of photovoltaic installations on buildings," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    18. Jana Hojnik & Mitja Ruzzier & Tatiana S. Manolova, 2020. "Sustainable development: Predictors of green consumerism in Slovenia," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1695-1708, July.
    19. Xuan Hu & Jing Tan & Kefei Han, 2025. "Examining the spillover effect of self-protective behaviors on sustainable land use intentions: behavioral insights from landslide-prone areas in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 121(16), pages 18919-18937, September.
    20. Magnus Bergquist & Andreas Nilsson & Emma Ejelöv, 2019. "Contest-Based and Norm-Based Interventions: (How) Do They Differ in Attitudes, Norms, and Behaviors?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:12803-:d:1224201. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.