2021 Volume 2020 Issue 2 Pages 19-30
To understand the impact of personal communication on environmental behavior, the present study compared the role of the mass media and personal communications in three countries: Japan, China and Germany. It is pointed out that information from the mass media is non-specific to individuals. Compared to the information from mass media, the target of communication is clear when communicated through personal channels. Therefore we predicted that personal communications would be more effective in inducing pro-environmental behaviors compared to mass media. Questionnaire survey was conducted with university students in Japan, China and Germany. The results of structural equation modeling showed that personal communication had stronger effects on the awareness of consequences and needs, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) compared to information from mass media. The effects of personal communications were observed in both Asian and Western cultures. This result indicates that information through personal communication can be processed with higher attention, and this process is universal across cultures. The present study showed that mass media alone was not sufficient to motivate people to conduct pro-environmental behavior, which highlighted the need to promote communications among individuals on environmental issues.
