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To select effective interventions for pro-environmental behaviour change, we need to consider determinants of behaviour

Nature Human Behaviour volume 6, pages 1482–1492 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour is necessary to reduce CO2 emissions and limit global climate change. Many reviews and meta-analyses have been published examining the effectiveness of interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviour. Yet, it remains unclear which interventions are most effective, when and why. Because interventions are more likely to encourage pro-environmental behaviour when they target key determinants of the relevant behaviour, it is critical to understand which interventions target which determinants. We introduce a classification system that links six types of interventions to 13 determinants of environmental behaviour. Our classification enables a theory-based understanding of when and why interventions are effective (or not) in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour and provides guidelines to practitioners to select interventions that are most likely to change the key determinants of a specific target behaviour, and thus likely to be the most successful in changing behaviour in the given context.

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Fig. 1: Procedure for selecting promising interventions to promote pro-environmental behaviour.

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  1. Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands

    Anne M. van Valkengoed & Linda Steg

  2. School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Wokje Abrahamse

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Supplementary Methods and Literature Review.

Supplementary Table 1

Coding literature review determinants.

Supplementary Table 2

Coding literature review interventions.

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van Valkengoed, A.M., Abrahamse, W. & Steg, L. To select effective interventions for pro-environmental behaviour change, we need to consider determinants of behaviour. Nat Hum Behav 6, 1482–1492 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01473-w

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