IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/climat/v140y2017i2d10.1007_s10584-016-1830-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why aren’t we taking action? Psychological barriers to climate-positive food choices

Author

Listed:
  • Robert D. Gifford

    (University of Victoria)

  • Angel K. S. Chen

    (University of Victoria)

Abstract

The environmental attitude-behavior gap has been extensively studied, but no research has examined a wide range of barriers to climate change mitigation. Inspired by Gifford’s (2011) seven categories of psychological barriers to climate change mitigation and adaptation, we examined the role of 36 barriers on climate-positive food-choice intentions. Of the 36, 29 were significantly related to weaker intentions. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the barriers cluster into four factors (Denial, Interpersonal Influences, Conflicting Goals and Aspirations, and Tokenism). Confirmatory factor analysis validated both the four-factor model and the rational seven-factor model proposed earlier. All factors except Interpersonal Influence are related to fewer food-choice intentions, illustrating the value of understanding psychological barriers for pro-environmental intentions.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert D. Gifford & Angel K. S. Chen, 2017. "Why aren’t we taking action? Psychological barriers to climate-positive food choices," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 165-178, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:140:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10584-016-1830-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-016-1830-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-016-1830-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10584-016-1830-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Albert Bandura, 2007. "Impeding ecological sustainability through selective moral disengagement," International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1), pages 8-35.
    2. Samuelson, William & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1988. "Status Quo Bias in Decision Making," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 7-59, March.
    3. Fredrik Hedenus & Stefan Wirsenius & Daniel Johansson, 2014. "The importance of reduced meat and dairy consumption for meeting stringent climate change targets," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 79-91, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karolina Choroszy, 2021. "The sociodemographic determinants of Polish consumer perception of food quality," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 9(1), pages 176-189, September.
    2. Emilio Chuvieco & Mario Burgui-Burgui & Anabel Orellano & Gonzalo Otón & Paloma Ruíz-Benito, 2021. "Links between Climate Change Knowledge, Perception and Action: Impacts on Personal Carbon Footprint," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Menrad, K. & Emberger-Klein, A. & Schops, J., 2018. "Factors influencing consumers behavioral intention towards climate-friendly food consumption in Southern Germany," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277108, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Isabel Lema-Blanco & Ricardo García-Mira & Jesús-Miguel Muñoz-Cantero, 2023. "Understanding Motivations for Individual and Collective Sustainable Food Consumption: A Case Study of the Galician Conscious and Responsible Consumption Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Gkargkavouzi, Anastasia & Halkos, George & Matsiori, Steriani, 2019. "How do motives and knowledge relate to intention to perform environmental behavior? Assessing the mediating role of constraints," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Catherine Graves & Katy Roelich, 2021. "Psychological Barriers to Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change: A Review of Meat Consumption Behaviours," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-18, October.
    7. Zahra Asgarizadeh & Robert Gifford, 2022. "Community and psychological barriers to tsunami preparation," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 112(2), pages 1321-1336, June.
    8. Ma, Yuan & Liu, Changshan, 2023. "Emotional or rational choice: The influence of individual personality on energy-saving behavior," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    9. Abida Begum & Jingwei Liu & Hina Qayum & Amr Mamdouh, 2022. "Environmental and Moral Education for Effective Environmentalism: An Ideological and Philosophical Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Philippe Fevrier & Sebastien Gay, 2005. "Informed Consent Versus Presumed Consent The Role of the Family in Organ Donations," HEW 0509007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Wiebke Roß & Jens Weghake, 2018. "Wa(h)re Liebe: Was Online-Dating-Plattformen über zweiseitige Märkte lehren," TUC Working Papers in Economics 0017, Abteilung für Volkswirtschaftslehre, Technische Universität Clausthal (Department of Economics, Technical University Clausthal).
    3. Jose Apesteguia & Miguel Ballester, 2009. "A theory of reference-dependent behavior," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 40(3), pages 427-455, September.
    4. Bryce, Cormac & Dowling, Michael & Lucey, Brian, 2020. "The journal quality perception gap," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(5).
    5. Boyce, Christopher & Czajkowski, Mikołaj & Hanley, Nick, 2019. "Personality and economic choices," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 82-100.
    6. Ishii, Joy & Xuan, Yuhai, 2014. "Acquirer-target social ties and merger outcomes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 344-363.
    7. Daniel W. Elfenbein & Anne Marie Knott & Rachel Croson, 2017. "Equity stakes and exit: An experimental approach to decomposing exit delay," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 278-299, February.
    8. Lovric, M. & Kaymak, U. & Spronk, J., 2008. "A Conceptual Model of Investor Behavior," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-030-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    9. Boon, L.N. & Brière, M. & Rigot, S., 2018. "Regulation and pension fund risk-taking," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 23-41.
    10. Andrea Baranzini & Stefano Carattini & Linda Tesauro, 2021. "Designing Effective and Acceptable Road Pricing Schemes: Evidence from the Geneva Congestion Charge," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 79(3), pages 417-482, July.
    11. Karle, Heiko & Schumacher, Heiner & Vølund, Rune, 2023. "Consumer loss aversion and scale-dependent psychological switching costs," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 214-237.
    12. Christian W. Scheiner & Christian V. Baccarella & John Bessant & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2018. "Participation Motives, Moral Disengagement, And Unethical Behaviour In Idea Competitions," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(06), pages 1-24, August.
    13. Louis Lévy-Garboua & Claude Montmarquette, 1996. "Cognition In Seemingly Riskless Choices And Judgments," Rationality and Society, , vol. 8(2), pages 167-185, May.
    14. H. Henry Cao & Bing Han & David Hirshleifer & Harold H. Zhang, 2011. "Fear of the Unknown: Familiarity and Economic Decisions," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 15(1), pages 173-206.
    15. Stefano D’Angelo & Angelo Cavallo & Antonio Ghezzi & Francesco Di Lorenzo, 2024. "Understanding corporate entrepreneurship in the digital age: a review and research agenda," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(12), pages 3719-3774, December.
    16. Silvia Jordan & Corinna Treisch, 2010. "The perception of tax concessions in retirement savings decisions," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(3), pages 157-184, October.
    17. Raphaël Giraud, 2010. "On the interpretation of the WTP/WTA gap as imprecise utility: an axiomatic analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(1), pages 692-701.
    18. Erica Mina Okada, 2010. "Uncertainty, Risk Aversion, and WTA vs. WTP," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 75-84, 01-02.
    19. Begley, Jaclene & Chan, Sewin, 2018. "The effect of housing wealth shocks on work and retirement decisions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 180-195.
    20. Walter Bossert & Yves Sprumont, 2009. "Non‐Deteriorating Choice," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(302), pages 337-363, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:140:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10584-016-1830-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.