TITLE:
The Effect of Information Provision on Pro-Environmental Behaviors
AUTHORS:
Hyunsook Lee, Kiyo Kurisu, Keisuke Hanaki
KEYWORDS:
Information Provision, Information Content, Media, Free Papers, Pro-Environmental Behaviors
JOURNAL NAME:
Low Carbon Economy,
Vol.6 No.2,
May
25,
2015
ABSTRACT: To reduce the
environmental load of the household sector, it is important to enhance people’s
pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). Information provision has been considered as
one of the possible methods for fostering PEBs. However, previous studies have
seldom discussed what type of information is most appropriate for the target
behavior. Effective media through which to provide such information should be
also discussed. In order to identify the most effective such information, as
well as the effectiveness of free papers as media through which to disseminate
it, environmental information regarding two behaviors—“My Cup” and “Carbon
Cashbag”—was provided through online questionnaires and free papers. Even
though the same information was provided in both sources, it was found that the
effectiveness of the content depended on the target behavior and region. As
lack of information was one of the barriers to “Carbon Cashbag” behavior, it
was found that the provision of very basic information improved the intention
and practice of the behavior. Higher scores for intention and practice were
observed when information was provided through free papers, which could
therefore be considered as effective media through which to deliver information
about PEBs.