Browsing by Subject "energy behavior"

This thesis aims to study if personal values mediate the effect of gender on pro-environmental behavior, PEB. It is important to investigate the antecedents of PEB, since the current climate crisis is caused by human behavior. Among the most influential areas of behaviors are those related to energy. Therefore, two energy related behaviors were chosen to represent PEB in this study: energy use reduction and intention of buying an energy efficient appliance. Values have been shown to affect behavior and there is some evidence of gender differences in values, thus gender and values were chosen as predictors of the behaviors. The theoretical basis for this argument lies in Schwartz theory of basic values and several models on antecedents of PEB, e.g. the Value-Belief-Norm Theory. The material comes from the 2016 dataset of the European Social Survey Round 8 (ESS8), which included a module on climate change and energy and used the Portrait Values Questionnaire for measuring values. The data is limited to the Finnish nationally representative sample. The hypotheses examine whether Finnish women behave more proenvironmentally than Finnish men do, and whether women’s higher self-transcendent values and men’s higher self-enhancement values explain this difference in PEB. Hypotheses were tested through hierarchical stepwise regression analysis and mediation analysis. The results were as expected, with small, but statistically significant, differences between men and women in both values and behavior. On average, Finnish women have more self-transcendent values and behave more pro-environmentally, than Finnish men do. The mediation was supported even when covariates were included, which further supports the findings. The only exception to this was the mediation of gender on energy efficacy behavior through self-enhancement values. Explanations for this and the other results are discussed, as well as critique of the binary definition of gender and other limitations. This study adds to the understanding of antecedents of pro-environmental behavior, which is fundamental to achieving effective behavior change.