Abstract
In this research we empirically examined how the experience of hearing opinions that are skeptical about environmental problems affects pro-environmental behavior.
Hypothesis1. “There are significant interaction effects between hearing opinions being skeptical about environmental problems and the involvement in environmental problems on criticized pro-environmental behavior”
1-a. “When the involvement in environmental problems is higher, the more people hear opinions being skeptical about environmental problems, the less people address criticized pro-environmental behavior”
1-b. “When the involvement in environmental problems is lower, hearing opinions being skeptical about environmental problems does not affect criticized pro-environmental behavior“
Hypothesis2. ”There is no interaction effect between hearing skeptical opinions and the involvement in environmental problems on non-criticized pro-environmental behavior”
We conducted a mail survey in 2009 at Itabashi ward, Tokyo. The results showed that there were significant interaction effects between hearing skeptical opinions and the involvement in environmental problems on criticized pro-environmental behavior (support Hypothesis1-a, did not support Hypothesis1-b), while there were neither main effect nor interaction effect on non-criticized pro-environmental behavior (support Hypothesis2).
