Speakers
Description
The reduction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the fight against anthropogenic climate change requires the change of behaviors and lifestyles of all of us. Different domains are relevant for reducing GHG emissions, such as the overarching areas of transportation, energy usage, and electricity consumption all of which involve more specific behaviors. In this context, public support of such mitigation policies is crucial. With this large study of the Austrian population (N ~ 1000), we focus on behavior change intentions in high-impact areas of energy consumption. We test meaningful psychological predictors and mediating mechanisms for behavior change intentions, such as biospheric values, consideration of future consequences, and willingness to sacrifice, which have been shown to be important in previous studies. We show that these variables predict some, but certainly not all behavioral intentions, indicating that both behaviors and psychological factors are heterogenous within the population, complicating future interventions.
