Exploring the adoption, maintenance, and transmission of pro-environmental behaviour among moralised practice group members and non-members

探索道德实践团体成员和非成员对环保行为的采用、维持和传播

• 批准号: 2097550
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bath
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2097550
• 关键词: Exploring; adoption; maintenance; transmission; pro

Climate Change is often characterised as a 'collective action' problem, resolvable only through worldwide behavioural change and political mobilization. Transport, diet and material consumption are widely identified as crucial sites for environmental behaviour change. However, due to being inextricably woven into daily life, such changes require large sacrifices that often don't provide immediate, tangible outcomes for the individual. Yet many do people adapt their daily behaviour drastically in light of moral sensitivity to environmental concerns. These individuals act in the minority and are often subject to social stigma surrounding their daily practices. Partly as a result of their minority and potentially stigmatised status, they come to form identities surrounding their lifestyle changes, such as "vegan", or "cyclist", for which I propose the term "environmental moralised practice-based identities" (EMPIs).While EMPIs currently have minority status, their impact on C02 emissions is large. If adopted en masse, behaviours linked to EMPIs could greatly reduce C02 emissions globally in domains which, due to their personal nature, are often reluctant targets for policy interventions. However, research into these identities currently resides within topic and disciplinary silos. Examining such environmental identities in insolation ignores the potential motivational and behavioural synergies of differing EMPIs. Psychological Social Identity Theories ignore important geospatial, political and demographic impacts on EMPI provocation and formation. Contrastingly, while Social Practice Theories in sociology acknowledge the importance of infrastructure in enacting identity, they ignore social-psychological intergroup processes of belonging and conflict. The limits of these existing theories, and the necessity for societal reduction in C02 emissions, presents an opportunity for an interdisciplinary mixed-methods research program that examines EMPIs and their impact on the attitudes and behaviours of those around them. This PhD will contribute to such a program in two key ways via an international, interdisciplinary, and mixed-methods collaboration.Firstly, I will develop a stage-model of EMPI development, synthesising sociological, psychological and geographical factors driving identity provocation, development and maintenance. I will also explore how EMPI development is related to personality traits, demographic factors and pro-environmental behaviour. Cross-domain sensitivity of EMPIs to other pro-environmental behaviours will also be examined.Secondly, I will explore the societal impact and lifecycle of EMPIs on non-identified individuals. While existing research in marketing suggests that individuals who adopt an innovation early have an overall positive impact on the uptake of those around them, it is uncertain whether this effect holds for the more moralised behaviours I propose to investigate. Existing research and popular opinion suggest that perceived gatekeeping and minimal moral standards offered by EMPI groups might actually discourage non-identified individuals from behaving in pro-environmental ways. I will explore these dynamics in the context of EMPI labelling of products on product purchase in different cultural contexts and I will also examine the role of intergroup contact in transmission of EMPIs over time, in a longitudinal natural experiment of EMPI social networks at university.This research proposal incorporates mixed-method, interdisciplinary and intersectional perspectives to offer a new understanding of the importance of EMPIs for influencing pro-environmental behaviour change among and between social networks. It holds the potential to generate insights that stand to fundamentally challenge the ways in which policy makers conceptualise and utilise personal and social identities in their attempts to encourage pro-environmental behaviour.

气候变化通常被描述为一个“集体行动”的问题，只有通过全球范围的行为改变和政治动员才能解决。运输、饮食和物质消费被广泛认为是环境行为改变的关键所在。然而，由于与日常生活密不可分，这些变化需要做出巨大的牺牲，而这些牺牲往往不能为个人提供立即、有形的结果。然而，许多人确实根据对环境问题的道德敏感性大幅调整了他们的日常行为。这些人的行为属于少数，并且经常因其日常行为而受到社会耻辱。部分由于他们的少数和潜在的污名化地位，他们来形成围绕他们的生活方式的变化，如“素食主义者”，或“骑自行车”的身份，我建议的术语“环境道德实践为基础的身份”（EMPIs）。虽然EMPIs目前有少数地位，他们对二氧化碳排放的影响是大的。如果被广泛采用，与EMPIs相关的行为可以大大减少全球范围内的二氧化碳排放量，这些领域由于其个人性质，往往是政策干预的不情愿目标。然而，对这些身份的研究目前停留在主题和学科筒仓。在日照中检查这种环境特性忽略了不同EMPI的潜在动机和行为协同作用。心理社会认同理论忽视了地理空间、政治和人口对EMPI激发和形成的重要影响。相比之下，虽然社会学中的社会实践理论承认基础设施在制定身份方面的重要性，但它们忽视了归属和冲突的社会心理群体间过程。这些现有理论的局限性以及社会减少二氧化碳排放的必要性，为跨学科混合方法研究计划提供了一个机会，该计划旨在研究EMPI及其对周围人的态度和行为的影响。这个博士将通过国际，跨学科和混合方法的合作，在两个关键方面为这样的计划做出贡献。首先，我将开发EMPI发展的阶段模型，综合社会学，心理学和地理因素驱动身份的激发，发展和维护。我还将探讨EMPI的发展是如何与人格特质，人口因素和亲环境行为。此外，我亦会研究环境影响评估计划对其他环保行为的跨领域敏感性。其次，我会探讨环境影响评估计划对非身份人士的社会影响及生命周期。虽然现有的营销研究表明，早期采用创新的个人对周围人的吸收产生了总体积极的影响，但不确定这种影响是否适用于我建议调查的更道德化的行为。现有的研究和流行的观点表明，EMPI团体提供的守门和最低道德标准实际上可能会阻止未识别的个人以亲环境的方式行事。我将探讨这些动态的背景下，EMPI标签的产品对产品购买在不同的文化背景下，我也将研究的作用，群体间的接触，在传输的EMPI随着时间的推移，在纵向自然实验的EMPI社交网络在大学。跨学科和跨部门的观点，提供了一个新的理解的重要性，环境管理和影响倡议的影响，有利于环境的行为变化之间和社交网络。它具有产生见解的潜力，这些见解将从根本上挑战政策制定者在试图鼓励环保行为时概念化和利用个人和社会身份的方式。