Theories to explain environmental behaviour

This chapter discusses the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) that focuses on the role of individual costs and benefits, and the protection motivation theory (PMT) that assumes people consider individual and collective costs and benefits of behaviour. The chapter explains two theories that focus on morality: the norm activation model (NAM) theory and the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory of environmentalism. The norm activation model proposes that pro-environmental actions follow from the activation of personal norms, reflecting feelings of moral obligation to perform or refrain from actions. The VBN theory proposes that problem awareness depends on values and ecological worldviews. Goal-framing theory proposes that three general goals govern or ‘frame’ the way people process information and act upon it: the hedonic goal ‘to feel better right now’, the gain goal ‘to guard and improve one’s resources’, and the normative goal ‘to act appropriately’.