Psychological Barriers Moderate the Attitude-Behavior Gap for Climate Change (Updated June 20, 2024).

A study conducted in Portugal aimed to assess if psychological barriers moderate the association between environmental attitudes and climate action. The study found that psychological barriers, such as finding the change unnecessary, conflicting goals, social influences, lack of knowledge, and tokenism, can partly explain the gap between environmental attitudes and actions. The participants in the study showed generally positive environmental attitudes, which were moderately related to greater self-reported frequency of environmental action in certain areas, such as reusing materials and saving water and energy. However, the association between attitudes and behavior was negatively moderated by psychological barriers in some domains, such as reuse and food, but not for driving or flying. [Extracted from the article]