Promoting adolescents' pro‐environmental behavior: A motive‐alignment approach

Abstract

Most adolescents are concerned about climate change. What helps them to act on their concerns? This preregistered randomized experiment tested whether adolescents' pro‐environmental behavior can be promoted by framing the behavior as compatible with their autonomy motive. Dutch adolescents (N = 319, ages 12–17, 57.7% girls, predominantly indicating “Dutch” or “bicultural” identities) viewed a campaign‐style video that explained the causes of climate change (all conditions), and additionally framed pro‐environmental behavior as a personal choice (volition‐alignment), opportunity to rebel (rebellion‐alignment), or mandatory (misalignment). Rebellion‐alignment increased pro‐environmental behavior intentions and petitioning behavior; misalignment decreased pro‐environmental donating behavior. Effect sizes were small to medium. These findings provide proof of concept that motive alignment can be effective in promoting adolescents' pro‐environmental engagement.