AUTHOR=Xing Yunfeng , Li Mengqi , Liao Yuanhong 

TITLE=Trust, Identity, and Public-Sphere Pro-environmental Behavior in China: An Extended Attitude-Behavior-Context Theory

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.919578

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.919578

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Changing human behaviour is critical to mitigating the increasingly severe environmental harm. Although numerous studies focus on private-sphere or generalized pro-environmental behaviour (PEB), relatively little research examines explicitly public-sphere PEB from a collective action perspective. This study incorporates trust and identity into the Attitude-Behaviour-Context (ABC) theory to investigate Chinese residents' participation in public-sphere PEB. Primary data collected from 648 residents in China tested the model empirically. The results indicate that social trust, environmentalist self-identity, and politicized identity positively predict public-sphere PEB. While institutional trust positively impacts non-activist behaviours, but negatively relates to environmental activism. There is also evidence that trust and identity are moderators of attitude and public-sphere PEB. Specifically, social trust and environmentalist self-identity strengthen the effect of attitude on public-sphere PEB. Politicized identity increases the impact of attitude on environmental activism, but not on non-activist behaviours. And there is no significant moderating effect of institutional trust. The findings deepen the understanding of public-sphere PEB and making more targeted policies accordingly.