ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR / January 1999Bratt / CONSUMERS ’ ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR CONSUMERS’ ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR Generalized, Sector-Based, or Compensatory?

sarch interests focus on attitudes and behavior. ABSTRACT: The means applied to promote environmentally friendly behavior need to be evaluated. This study investigates the possibility that actions meant to improve recycling may have unintended consequences in fields other than the target behavior. The relation between self-reported environmental behaviors in several sectors is stud-ied, with particular attention given to the question of whether increased recycling may develop into a compensatory behavior for less environmentally friendly behavior elsewhere. Results from a survey, including approximately 1,500 Norwegian con-sumers, are presented. No tendencies toward compensatory behavior are detected. Furthermore, the survey does not indicate that the introduction of measures meant to increase recycling brings increased attitudinal support for compensatory behavior. At the same time, the survey supports the view that there is no “general ” environmental behavior among consumers. On the other hand, the correlations between different be-haviors increase when the behaviors in question become more similar. Various actions are taken to promote consumers ’ contribution to environ-mental protection, hoping to advance “sustainable consumption. ” The differ-ent means applied need to be evaluated to determine which are suited to promote environmentally friendly behavior. An issue to consider when evaluating means will be whether they have any impact on environmental behaviors other than the target behavior. Fo