Parenting Motivation and Pro-environmental Behavior
(A2022-107612)

AUTHORS

Nan Liu, School of Management, Jinan University; Hongwei He, Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester; Sumin Kim, Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester; Ai-mei Li, Jinan University

ABSTRACT

How to encourage pro-environmental behavior (PEB) has long been a great concern for policymakers and researchers. The present study aims to address this issue from an evolutionary psychology perspective, specifically, how parenting motivation influences PEB. In three studies, we found that parenting motivation promotes PEB and hope mediated this relationship. In addition, we find that this effect can only be detected among those who perceived the environmental issues to be psychologically close to their offspring but not when psychological distance is distant. This study not only contributes to PEB research from an evolutionary psychology perspective, but also contributes to the literature on the application of evolutionary psychology to understanding consumer behaviors. Our findings also provide managerial and policy insights on how to promote PEB.