Individuals recognize their lifestyle is more unsustainable than what is generally acceptable, yet they consider the lifestyle of others to be even more harmful; there are compensatory green beliefs on the biases in the estimated environmental impacts

Biased perception of the environmental impact of everyday behaviors. Laura Pasca & Lucía Poggio. The Journal of Social Psychology, Nov 12 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2021.2000354

Abstract: Despite our concern about climate change, certain psychological barriers hinder the adoption of a pro-environmental lifestyle. In the present study (n = 186), we analyzed the participants’ estimates of the environmental impact of their lifestyles, compared to their moral standards and the perceived normative impact. Results show that individuals recognize their lifestyle is more unsustainable than what is generally acceptable, yet they consider the lifestyle of others to be even more harmful. Furthermore, we studied the role of compensatory green beliefs on the biases in the estimated environmental impacts. The results showed that individuals tend to consider that pro-environmental behaviors have a neutral environmental impact. Thus, our research suggests the existence of a bias in individuals’ perception of environmental impacts.

Keywords: Environmental impactmoral licensingclimate changecompensatory green beliefssocial norms