社会与工程心理学研究室知识库

随着环境污染问题越来越严重，人们的环境意识也不断增强，但是亲环境行为却有所下降，出现了“知行分离”的困境。以往研究将亲环境行为看作是现在自我与未来他人利益之间的权衡。因此，本研究试图从未来自我和未来他人连续性的角度出发，探究助推人们亲环境行为的有效途径：

研究一采用静态文本的启动方法，探索未来自我/他人连续性对亲环境行为倾向的影响。研究对477名已工作人士发放调查问卷，被试随机分为三组(控制组、未来自我组和未来他人组)，通过静态文本操纵，结果发现：未来自我组(考虑自己为未来20年后的自己留下的积极影响)和未来他人组(考虑自己为未来20年后的他人留下的积极影响)的亲环境行为倾向均显著高于控制组。

研究二采用动态虚拟的启动方法，探索未来自我/他人连续性对亲环境行为倾向及实际亲环境行为的影响。在行为实验中将254名研究生随机分为三组，通过动态虚拟操纵，结果发现：相对于控制组，被试与20年后虚拟他人或自己互动均促进了亲环境行为倾向和行为(将实验中的剩余纸张扔到可回收垃圾桶)。

研究三在人际维度将未来他人分为未来子女和未来陌生人。研究采用2(是否生育：已育/未育)×3(组别：未来子女组/未来陌生人组/控制组)的组间设计，利用静态文本法，探究未来子女/陌生人连续性对亲环境行为倾向和给环保组织捐款意愿影响的差异。研究对607名已工作人士发放调查问卷，结果发现：在亲环境行为倾向上，两自变量的主效应均显著，交互作用不显著。即已育组显著高于未育组；不同组别下：未来陌生人组显著高于控制组，未来子女组高于控制组，两者之间差异边缘显著，未来陌生人组和未来子女组之间差异不显著。在捐款意愿上，未育组显著高于已育组；组别的主效应及两自变量的交互作用都不显著。

综上，本研究从现实问题出发，颇具新意地区分了未来自我连续性和未来他人(子女/陌生人)连续性对亲环境行为的不同作用。研究结果有助于解决环保领域中“知行分离”的困境，并为环境问题的风险管理提供了借鉴。

With the ever-increasing problems caused by environmental pollution, more and more people have come to realize the importance of environmental protection. Unfortunately, despite their high environmental awareness, people’s pro-environmental behaviors seem to decrease over the years, resulting in the dilemma of so-called knowledge-behavior gap. Previous literature described pro-environmental behavior as a trade-off between the interests of current self and future others, which offers a brand-new perspective for boosting environmental protection. Therefore, this research attempts to nudge people's pro-environmental behavior through future self-continuity and future other-continuity:

Study 1 conducted a survey to explore the effects of future self-continuity and future other-continuity on pro-environmental behavioral tendency using static text manipulation method. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 477 employees, participants were assigned to three groups (i.e., future self, future other, and control group). Participants in the future self or future other group were asked to imagine themselves or some strangers 20 years in the future and write down the legacy that would be left for themselves or strangers. Study 1 found that both the future self group and the future other group showed a significantly higher pro-environmental behavioral tendency than the control group.

Study 2 explored the effects of future self-continuity and future other-continuity on pro-environmental behavioral tendency and actual behavior using dynamic virtual manipulation method. we conducted a behavioral experiment, 254 graduate students were also assigned into three groups as in Study 1 and were asked to interact with future self or future others 20 years later virtually on the screen. Results found that, consistent with Study 1, participants who interacted with future themselves or others showed higher pro-environmental behavioral tendencies compared to the control group. Moreover, they were more likely to throw waste paper into recycle bins.

Study 3 subdivided the future others into future posterity and future strangers on the interpersonal dimension. The study adopted 2 (Procreation: with children/ without children) × 3 (Groups: future posterity/ future stranger/ control group) design to further investigate the different impact of future posterity/stranger-continuity on pro-environmental behavioral tendency and willingness to donate to environmental organizations. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 607 employees. For the pro-environmental behavioral tendency, Study 3 found that the main effects of both independent variables were significant, but the interaction effect was not significant. Specifically, participants with children showed higher pro-environmental behavioral tendency than those without. Moreover, pro-environmental behavioral tendency of both future stranger and future posterity group were significantly higher than that of the control group, but the difference between two experimental groups was insignificant. On the other hand, for the willingness to donate to environmental organizations, the main effect of procreation was significant. That is, participants without children were more willing to donate money to environmental organization. However, the main effect of groups and the interaction between future others and procreation were not found to be significant.

To sum up, this research draws from the dilemma of environmental protection and makes a novel distinction between the effects of future self-continuity and future-other (posterity/stranger) continuity on pro-environmental behavior. The results can help to overcome the knowledge-behavior gap and benefit future risk management of environmental problems.