Sparks, Paul, Jessop, Donna C, Chapman, James and Holmes, Katherine (2010) Pro-environmental actions, climate change, and defensiveness: do self-affirmations make a difference to people's motives and beliefs about making a difference? British Journal of Social Psychology, 49 (3). pp. 553-568. ISSN 0144-6665

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Abstract

Social concerns with the imperative of environmentally sustainable life-styles sit rather awkwardly with ideas about the widespread denial of global environmental problems. Given the very obvious threat and denial dimensions to these issues, we conducted two studies assessing the impact of self-affirmation manipulations on people's beliefs and motives regarding pro-environmental actions. In Study 1, participants (N =125) completed a self-affirmation task and read information on the threat of climate change. Results showed that the self-affirmation manipulation resulted in lower levels of denial and greater perceptions of personal involvement in relation to climate change. In Study 2, participants (N =90) completed a self-affirmation task and read some information on recycling. Findings showed a beneficial effect of a self-affirmation manipulation on intentions to increase recycling behaviour (among lower recyclers). The results are discussed in relation to the potential benefits of self-affirmation manipulations for promoting pro-environmental actions

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Psychology > Psychology
Depositing User:	Paul Sparks
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 15:40
Last Modified:	30 Nov 2012 06:08
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/13848

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