How do motives and knowledge relate to intention to perform environmental behavior? Assessing the mediating role of constraints

Abstract

This study explored how motives and knowledge are associated with intention to adopt environmental behavior through the mediating role of constraints. Additionally, it assessed structural models of associations among barriers to environmental behavior, motives, and environmental knowledge. Two broad types of barriers were assessed (psychological and structural barriers) to shed light on the limiting factors of environmental behavior. Drawing on the Goal Framing Theory, we investigated three incentive types that motivate individuals to participate in pro-ecological activities, namely gain, hedonic and normative motives. A questionnaire survey method was used to obtain a representative sample of Greek citizens (n = 1551). We applied Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to assess the reliability and validity of the study constructs and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the research hypotheses and reveal the interrelationships among the variables. The main findings indicated that barriers mediate the impact of environmental knowledge and motivation on intention. Normative and hedonic motives had a significant negative impact on all types of barriers, while gain goals significantly but negatively influenced constraints. The possible contribution of the research findings to the literature or the design of policy interventions that consider knowledge, constraints and motives to environmental behavior, and future research directions are discussed. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.