Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act

Many environmental problems stem from unsustainable human consumption. Accordingly, many studies have focused on the barriers to pro-environmental behavior. The inability or unwillingness to act is partially related to personal values as well as the psychological distance between individual actions...

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Published in:Sustainability
Main Authors: Ragna Benedikta Garðarsdóttir, Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir, Throstur Thorsteinsson
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145867
https://doaj.org/article/69f2e7f509384a319e3d08e209c1bc55
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spelling fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:69f2e7f509384a319e3d08e209c1bc55 2023-05-15T16:50:54+02:00 Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act Ragna Benedikta Garðarsdóttir Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir Throstur Thorsteinsson 2020-07-01 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145867 https://doaj.org/article/69f2e7f509384a319e3d08e209c1bc55 en eng MDPI AG doi:10.3390/su12145867 2071-1050 https://doaj.org/article/69f2e7f509384a319e3d08e209c1bc55 undefined Sustainability, Vol 12, Iss 5867, p 5867 (2020) firework pollution pro-environmental behavior hedonic motives psychological distance environmental awareness envir hisphilso Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2020 fttriple https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145867 2023-01-22T19:23:22Z Many environmental problems stem from unsustainable human consumption. Accordingly, many studies have focused on the barriers to pro-environmental behavior. The inability or unwillingness to act is partially related to personal values as well as the psychological distance between individual actions and the resulting pollution, which is often perceived as abstract or intangible. In contrast, fireworks produce imminent, undeniable air pollution. The goal of this research was to advance the knowledge on the awareness-value-behavior gap by studying public fireworks consumption and the willingness to act against firework pollution. A nationally representative survey was conducted after the extremely polluting 2017/18 New Year’s Eve in Iceland (European hourly record in fine particulate matter: 3014 µg/m3). Our results demonstrate that, after controlling for the awareness of harmful pollution, hedonic motives predict the purchasing of fireworks and the opposition to mitigating action. Noticing public warnings regarding fireworks pollution did not significantly relate to the purchase behavior. The awareness of the harmful effects of firework pollution was, however, the largest predictor of the support for mitigating action. Despite reporting the pleasure derived from fireworks, 57% of the sample favored stricter governmental regulation, and 27% favored banning the public use of fireworks in order to “protect them from what they want”. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Unknown Sustainability 12 14 5867
institution Open Polar
collection Unknown
op_collection_id fttriple
language English
topic firework pollution
pro-environmental behavior
hedonic motives
psychological distance
environmental awareness
envir
hisphilso
spellingShingle firework pollution
pro-environmental behavior
hedonic motives
psychological distance
environmental awareness
envir
hisphilso
Ragna Benedikta Garðarsdóttir
Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir
Throstur Thorsteinsson
Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act
topic_facet firework pollution
pro-environmental behavior
hedonic motives
psychological distance
environmental awareness
envir
hisphilso
description Many environmental problems stem from unsustainable human consumption. Accordingly, many studies have focused on the barriers to pro-environmental behavior. The inability or unwillingness to act is partially related to personal values as well as the psychological distance between individual actions and the resulting pollution, which is often perceived as abstract or intangible. In contrast, fireworks produce imminent, undeniable air pollution. The goal of this research was to advance the knowledge on the awareness-value-behavior gap by studying public fireworks consumption and the willingness to act against firework pollution. A nationally representative survey was conducted after the extremely polluting 2017/18 New Year’s Eve in Iceland (European hourly record in fine particulate matter: 3014 µg/m3). Our results demonstrate that, after controlling for the awareness of harmful pollution, hedonic motives predict the purchasing of fireworks and the opposition to mitigating action. Noticing public warnings regarding fireworks pollution did not significantly relate to the purchase behavior. The awareness of the harmful effects of firework pollution was, however, the largest predictor of the support for mitigating action. Despite reporting the pleasure derived from fireworks, 57% of the sample favored stricter governmental regulation, and 27% favored banning the public use of fireworks in order to “protect them from what they want”.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Ragna Benedikta Garðarsdóttir
Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir
Throstur Thorsteinsson
author_facet Ragna Benedikta Garðarsdóttir
Hrund Ólöf Andradóttir
Throstur Thorsteinsson
author_sort Ragna Benedikta Garðarsdóttir
title Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act
title_short Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act
title_full Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act
title_fullStr Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act
title_full_unstemmed Protect Me from What I Want: Understanding Excessive Polluting Behavior and the Willingness to Act
title_sort protect me from what i want: understanding excessive polluting behavior and the willingness to act
publisher MDPI AG
publishDate 2020
url https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145867
https://doaj.org/article/69f2e7f509384a319e3d08e209c1bc55
genre Iceland
genre_facet Iceland
op_source Sustainability, Vol 12, Iss 5867, p 5867 (2020)
op_relation doi:10.3390/su12145867
2071-1050
https://doaj.org/article/69f2e7f509384a319e3d08e209c1bc55
op_rights undefined
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145867
container_title Sustainability
container_volume 12
container_issue 14
container_start_page 5867
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