scholarly journals Social Preferences and Environmental Behavior: A Comparison of Self-Reported and Observed Behaviors

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6023
Author(s):  
Zachary Oliphant ◽  
Chae M. Jaynes ◽  
Richard K. Moule Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Economic Games ◽  
Recycling Behavior

Faced with the depletion of natural resources and climate change, individuals making the choice to behave in a more environmentally conscious way is increasingly necessary. Rational choice theory suggests that individuals will only behave in pro-environmental ways if they perceive those actions to align with their own self-interests. Others, however, have highlighted instances where individuals act pro-socially or altruistically, deviating from their own self-interests for the benefit of others. The present study examines whether individuals’ social preferences are associated with engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. Specifically, drawing on a methodology from behavioral economics, we use dictator and ultimatum game behavior to measure social preferences, and we then evaluate whether heterogeneity in social preferences is associated with self-reported pro-environmental behaviors and observed recycling behavior. The results indicate that individual differences in social preferences have a modest association with self-reported pro-environmental behaviors but no association with observed recycling behavior. Self-reported pro-environmental behavior was not associated with observed recycling behavior. We also find that recycling bin proximity to classroom doors increased participation in recycling. This finding demonstrates that individuals are receptive to the proximate opportunity to recycle. This suggests increasing the ease with which people can engage in pro-environmental behaviors, such as recycling, will promote participation in these practices. Overall, our research indicates that social preferences do not seem to drive individuals to act in environmentally friendly ways. This work also provides new opportunities for future research to integrate economic games into the study of pro-environmental behaviors.

scholarly journals Review of Behavioural Theories in Security Compliance and Research Challenge

10.28945/3722 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiep Pham ◽  
Linda Brennan ◽  
Joan Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Cyber Security ◽  
Theory Of Planned Behaviour ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
General Deterrence ◽  
Security Compliance ◽  
Research Challenge ◽  
Behavioural Theories

Aim/Purpose: Inconsistent findings on the effect of various determinants of cyber security behaviour emphasise the need for further understanding of the applicability of compliance theories. The paper provides a critical review of determinants of users’ cyber security behaviour and establishes directions for future research. Background: Cyber security behaviour has been studied using a range of behavioural theories. Factors from these theories help organisations to develop suitable initiatives to encourage positive compliance from the employees. Contribution: The paper integrates factors that can impact cyber security behaviour from Theory of Planned Behaviour, Protection Motivation Theory, Rational Choice Theory and General Deterrence Theory into an overarching framework for better connection of the theories. Previous studies’ findings were analysed to establish research challenges in the field. Future Research: Future research should investigate the complex interaction between organizational and personal characteristics so that a security program can be developed that can effectively engage employees with security tasks even in demanding work environment.

scholarly journals What Affects Chinese Households’ Behavior in Sorting Solid Waste? A Case Study from Shanghai, Shenyang, and Chengdu

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 8831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanmin He ◽  
Hideki Kitagawa ◽  
YeeKeong Choy ◽  
Xin Kou ◽  
Peii Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Choice Model ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
Household Waste ◽  
Charge System ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Environmentally Conscious ◽  
Voluntary Behavior ◽  
Waste Separation ◽  
Item Scale

The main aim of this study was to examine residents’ environmental behavior in sorting solid household waste, and to identify the integrative factors that contribute to their waste-separation cooperation and other related pro-environmental behaviors. This was achieved based on a questionnaire survey in Shenyang, Chengdu, and Shanghai. Methodologically, we applied a discrete choice model to examine whether individuals’ garbage sorting behaviors differ based on their characteristics, social attributes, residential circumstances, and environmental awareness, and whether these factors are correlated with individuals’ receptiveness to a refuse charge system, or to policies requiring garbage sorting. We further examined whether individuals’ garbage sorting behavior, their receptiveness to fee-based waste collection, and their receptiveness to policies requiring garbage sorting differ across areas. In this particular survey, we introduced a 16 item scale of pro-environmental behavior and a nine item scale of altruism to ascertain the ways in which internal motivational factors affect people’s environmentally conscious voluntary behavior. Overall, the present work is expected to contribute to an important understanding of the motivational forces and incentives behind human pro-environmental behavior and action. It also brings relevance to the analysis of moral solidarity in relation to the household waste disposal problems currently confronting us today.

scholarly journals If you've earned it, you deserve it: ultimatums, with Lego

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Adam Oliver
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Individual Decision ◽  
Individual Decision Making ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Dictator Games ◽  
Common Observation

Abstract The ultimatum and dictator games were developed to help identify the fundamental motivators of human behavior, typically by asking participants to share windfall endowments with other persons. In the ultimatum game, a common observation is that proposers offer, and responders refuse to accept, a much larger share of the endowment than is predicted by rational choice theory. However, in the real world, windfalls are rare: money is usually earned. I report here a small study aimed at testing how participants react to an ultimatum game after they have earned their endowments by either building a Lego model or spending some time sorting out screws by their length. I find that the shares that proposers offer and responders accept are significantly lower than that typically observed with windfall money, an observation that is intensified when the task undertaken to earn the endowment is generally less enjoyable and thus perhaps more effortful (i.e., screw sorting compared to Lego building). I suggest, therefore, that considerations of effort-based desert are often important drivers behind individual decision-making, and that laboratory experiments, if intended to inform public policy design and implementation, ought to mirror the broad characteristics of the realities that people face.

scholarly journals Interdependent Preferences and Reciprocity

2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Sobel
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Economic Agents ◽  
Interdependent Preferences ◽  
Personal Consumption ◽  
Status Inequality ◽  
Strategic Context ◽  
Extended Preferences

Experiments, ethnography, and introspection provide evidence economic agents do not act to maximize their narrowly defined self interest. Expanding the domain of preferences to include the utility of others provides a coherent way to extend rational choice theory. There are two approaches for including extended or social preferences in strategic models. One posits that agents have extended preferences, but maintains the conventional assumption that these preferences are stable. Prominent examples of this approach permit agents to exhibit concern for status, inequality, and social welfare. The other approach permits the strategic context to determine the nature of individual preferences. Context-dependent preferences can capture the possibility that agents are motivated in part by reciprocity. They may sacrifice personal consumption in order to lower the utility of unkind agents or to raise the utility of kind agents. This paper surveys the evidence in favor of social preferences and describes the implications of the leading theoretical models of extended preferences. It presents behavioral assumptions that characterize different types of social preferences. It investigates the extent to which social preferences may arise as the limit of evolutionary processes. It discusses the relationship between norms of reciprocity and social preferences in repeated interactions.

scholarly journals Can positive and self-transcendent emotions promote pro-environmental behavior?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Zelenski ◽  
Jessica Desrochers
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Specific Hypothesis

Many scholars have suggested that people could improve their well-being by developing closer connections with nature, and that this would also promote the sustainable behaviors needed to address climate change. Research generally corroborates this idea, but few studies have examined the more specific hypothesis that positive emotions (caused by nature or otherwise) can directly influence pro-environmental behaviors. In particular, self-transcendent emotions such as awe, compassion, and gratitude can be prompted by nature, and they seem to foster pro-social behaviors. Most pro-environmental behaviors are also pro-social; they require cooperation and they benefit others. Some recent studies suggest that self-transcendent emotions can cause pro-environmental behavior, though results are mixed overall. We identify strategies for future research to resolve these inconclusive suggestions.

Muslim values and market value: a sociological perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Dean
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
The Social

Purpose – The paper aims to study the consequences of the development of Islamic marketing on the social construction of Muslim religious identities. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses Max Weber's ideal-type methodology to analyze actors and strategies in Islamic marketing, as represented by their self-presentation on French-, English- and Arabic-language web sites. Findings – First, the paper argues that by conflating values and preferences, rational choice theory fails to recognize an essential function of values, which govern the relationship between the personal and the social. Second, it describes the emergence of brand markets within traditional Muslim commodity economies. Third, it uses these distinctions, between the personal and the social and between commodity and brand economies, to construct four ideal types of Muslim economic actors: “collectivists”, “differentialists”, “integrationists”, and “entrepreneurs”. Research limitations/implications – The choice of web sites to survey Muslim economic and religious actors favors producers over consumers, religious specialists over laypeople. Future research should include protocols designed to test ways in which Muslims negotiate the conflicting demands of religion, society and economics in their daily lives. Originality/value – In contradistinction to studies that emphasize the influence of Muslim consumer demand on the development of goods and services, this paper shows that economic conditions, notably globalization and market segmentation, affect the way Muslims construct their religious identities.

Using previous social marketing efforts to assess a new program

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Ashton ◽  
Rajesh V. Manchanda
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Social Marketing ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This paper aims to report a research approach that explores how to use evaluations of previous social marketing efforts to assess and guide a new shelterbelt program called Working Tree. By targeting farmers, this new program aims to gain benefits from enhancing and expanding on-farm tree shelterbelts on the Canadian prairies. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a novel method that relies on secondary data from six completed social marketing cases as data for a comparative analysis with the new program. A conceptual framework is proposed and applied. This framework incorporates process and outcome indicators of evaluation, key dimensions of the rational choice theory and proven practices from experience. Findings Analysis suggests key parameters of the Working Tree program to be appropriate, with some modifications. However, limitations in the data also point to avenues for future research to deepen the authors’ understanding of assessing a new social marketing program in the prelaunch phase. More research is needed on what works, where and why. Research limitations/implications The seven indices are a modest set for comparatives and are not exhaustive. Six selected cases are small samples that are unable to fully reflect the environmental nature of the new program; yet, they contained critical data for the comparative analysis. Financial data are not in constant dollars, which would be needed when further analysis is undertaken. Practical implications This paper illustrates the importance of the evaluation stage of the social marketing process. It demonstrates the practicality of being able to effectively draw upon previous evaluations to inform new program investors and social marketers at the prelaunch stage. Originality/value The conceptual framework and method present a novel approach to use evaluation data to guide new program funding and initiatives. It is offered with the hope that others might draw upon the ideas presented here and advance them.

Use of Force in Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Quackenbush ◽  
Thomas R. Guarrieri
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Selectorate Theory

Foreign policy analysis has been used effectively to explain the use of force. Several leading approaches and paradigms help explain the use of force as a tool of foreign policy. These approaches are based on the important preliminary step of opening up the black box of state, which highlights the importance of decision making for explaining international politics. The two primary approaches to explaining foreign policy analysis are rational choice theory and psychological theories. Foreign policy analysis opens the door to a variety of novel and interesting topics. Many topics of domestic politics relate to international conflict, including democratic peace theory, selectorate theory, public opinion, domestic institutions, and leaders. Each of these topics is important for explaining the use of force in foreign policy. Future research on the use of force and international conflict should account for the importance of domestic politics. Studies of leaders, selectorate theory, and the bargaining model of war provide especially promising avenues for future research.

Different Routes to Explain Pro-Environmental Behavior: an Overview and Assessment

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Liebe
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
Social Dilemma ◽  
Theory Testing ◽  
Explanatory Factors ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Activation Theory ◽  
Norm Activation Theory ◽  
Empirical Performance

AbstractA variety of theoretical approaches have been taken in an attempt to understand, explain, and promote pro-environmental behavior. The present article gives an overview, including specific applications, and identifies and discusses various strategies used by researchers to deal with the availability of different approaches. The overview includes elementary rational choice theory, the theory of planned behavior, norm-activation theory, theories of habitual behavior, and theories within a social dilemma framework. Strategies identified are ‘extending existing theories by single explanatory factors’, ‘comparing theories’ in a competitive manner, and ‘combining theories’ in an integrative manner. It is argued that research would benefit from more standardization in empirical applications, from more competitive theory testing as opposed to integrative theory testing, and from an evaluation of approaches on theoretical grounds as opposed to focusing solely on empirical performance.

scholarly journals Study on the influence mechanism of recycling behavior on Pro-environmental behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 275 ◽  
pp. 02025
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Shengxiang She
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation Model ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Environmental Identity ◽  
Environmental Behaviors ◽  
Influence Mechanism ◽  
Recycling Behavior

The spillover effect between Pro-environmental behaviors is not enough studied, which is of great significance to understand the dynamic behavior of consumers as a whole. Based on a questionnaire survey and empirical analysis based on structural equation model, this paper reveals the spillover effect of consumer recycling behavior on Pro-environmental behavior, and examines the influence mechanism from the psychological perspective of emotion and environmental identity. The results show that recycling efforts positively affect Pro-environmental behavior through the mediating mechanism of pride and environmental identity.

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