How does Environmental Concern Influence Specific Environmentally Related Behaviors? A New Answer to an Old Question

The present study tests the hypothesis that environmental concern influences specific behavior indirectly via its impact on the generation and evaluation of situation-specific beliefs in the context of the decision to acquire information about green electricity products and the local providers of these products. The disappointment about the weak direct relationship between environmental concern and specific environmentally related behaviors is due to the incorrect assumption that general attitudes like environmental concern are direct determinants of specific behaviors. Because only situation-specific cognitions are direct determinants of specific behaviors, future research should no longer view environmental concern as a direct, but as an important indirect determinant of specific behavior. As a general orientation pattern it influences the definition of a specific situation that is the generation of situation-specific cognitions. Results of a study analysing high vs low environmentally concerned students' decision to request an information brochure about green electricity products confirms this assumption.