The international community is currently focused on reducing carbon emissions and coping with climate change. Encouraging residents to adopt a wider range of low-carbon consumption behaviors will help achieve carbon reduction targets and alleviate global climate change.
Working from social cognitive theory, this paper uses questionnaire data from 657 Chinese residents, collected from March 29 to May 29, 2024, to establish a structural equation model to study the influencing factors and driving mechanisms of residents’ low-carbon consumption behaviors.
This study finds that (1) of the individual factors, low-carbon cognition and self-efficacy positively impact low-carbon consumption behavior. (2) Of the environmental factors, group pressure and media publicity positively impact low-carbon consumption behavior. (3) Of the environmental factors, group pressure, media publicity and policies and regulations all positively impact low-carbon consumption behavior through the mediation of low-carbon cognition.
This study contributes to the growing body of literature on low-carbon consumption behavior, demonstrating the application of social cognitive theory in exploring the drivers of behavior.
Strategies for the government to promote residents’ low-carbon consumption behavior are proposed, which will help the government achieve its carbon reduction goals.
This paper uses social cognitive theory to explore the driving factors of residents’ low-carbon consumption behavior. Prior studies have only considered psychological factors; this study includes environmental factors, given their known influence on individual behavior and the interactions among environment, individual and behavior, to clarify the paths of their mutual influence.
