Version 1
: Received: 2 August 2024 / Approved: 5 August 2024 / Online: 5 August 2024 (14:05:57 CEST)
How to cite:
Dioba, A.; Kroker, V.; Dewitte, S.; Lange, F. Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behavior Change: A Review of Qualitative Research. Preprints2024, 2024080320. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0320.v1
Dioba, A.; Kroker, V.; Dewitte, S.; Lange, F. Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behavior Change: A Review of Qualitative Research. Preprints 2024, 2024080320. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0320.v1
Dioba, A.; Kroker, V.; Dewitte, S.; Lange, F. Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behavior Change: A Review of Qualitative Research. Preprints2024, 2024080320. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0320.v1
APA Style
Dioba, A., Kroker, V., Dewitte, S., & Lange, F. (2024). Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behavior Change: A Review of Qualitative Research. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0320.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Dioba, A., Siegfried Dewitte and Florian Lange. 2024 "Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behavior Change: A Review of Qualitative Research" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0320.v1
Abstract
In recent decades, reports of deforestation, mass extinctions, biodiversity loss, and emergencies like floods and droughts have clearly highlighted the impact of human activities on these outcomes. This underscores the need for significant lifestyle changes to mitigate this impact. Pro-environmental behavior (PEB) change involves adopting actions that protect the environment and reducing environmentally harmful activities. While qualitative research may provide unique insights into PEB barriers that are challenging to capture through quantitative methods, reports of qualitative studies are scattered across different literatures with little integration. With the present review, we bring together insights from qualitative studies on PEB barriers and examine whether those studies reveal barriers compatible with existing barrier frameworks from environmental psychology. We identified 38 qualitative studies on barriers to PEB change. Our analysis revealed that most of the barriers to individual pro-environmental action identified in qualitative studies align with environmental psychology frameworks. These barriers were experienced not only by individuals in their role as consumer or citizen, but also by community-level actors (e.g., seeking to implement pro-environmental policies) and industrial decision-makers (e.g., aiming to reduce the ecological footprint of their business activities). Our findings underscore the multifaceted nature of barriers to PEB change and emphasize the importance of addressing structural and institutional factors alongside individual-level interventions.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
