Why aren’t we taking action? Psychological barriers to climate-positive food choices

• Aarts H, Dijksterhuis A (2000) The automatic activation of goal-directed behaviour: the case of travel habit. J Environ Psychol 20:75–82. doi:10.1006/jevp.1999.0156

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Aquino K, Steisel V, Kay A (1992) The effects of resource distribution, voice, and decision framing on the provision of public goods. J Confl Resolut 36:665–687

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Bandura A (2007) Impeding ecological sustainability through selective moral disengagement. Int J Innovation Sustain Dev 2:8–35. doi:10.1504/IJISD.2007.016056

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Blake J (1999) Overcoming the value-action gap in environmental policy: tensions between national policy and local experience. Local Environ 4:257–278. doi:10.1080/13549839908725599

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Brehm JW (1966) A theory of psychological reactance. Academic, New York

  Google Scholar 

• Byrne BM (1994) Structural equation modeling with EQS and EQS/Windows. Sage, Thousand Oaks

  Google Scholar 

• Byrne BM (2009) Structural equation modeling with AMOS: basic concepts, applications, and programming, 2nd edn. Taylor & Francis, New York

  Google Scholar 

• Chen A, Gifford R (2015) “I wanted to cooperate, but…”: justifying suboptimal cooperation in a commons dilemma. Can J Behav Sci 47:282–291

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Cohen S (2001) States of denial: knowing about atrocities and suffering. Blackwell, Malden

  Google Scholar 

• Corbett JB (2006) Communicating nature: how we create and understand environmental messages. Island Press, Washington

  Google Scholar 

• Corraliza JA, Berenguer J (2000) Environmental values, beliefs and actions: a situational approach. Environ Behav 32:832–848

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Croker H, Whitaker KL, Cooke L, Wardle J (2009) Do social norms affect intended food choice? Prev Med 49:190–193. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2009.07.006

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Festinger L (1954) A theory of social comparison processes. Hum Relat 7:117–140. doi:10.1177/001872675400700202

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Feygina I, Jost JT, Goldsmith RE (2010) System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of “system-sanctioned change.”. Pers Soc Psychol B 36:326–338. doi:10.1177/0146167209351435

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (2006) Livestock’s long shadow: Environmental issues and options. Rome

• Gifford R (1976) Environmental numbness in the classroom. J Exp Educ 44:4–7

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Gifford R (2008) Psychology’s essential role in climate change. Can Psychol 49:273–280. doi:10.1037/a0013234

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Gifford R (2011) The dragons of inaction: psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation. Am Psychol 66:290–302. doi:10.1037/a0023566

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Gifford R, Scannell L, Kormos C, Smolova L, Biel A, Boncu S, Uzzell D (2009) Temporal pessimism and spatial optimism in environmental assessments: an 18-nation study. J Environ Psychol 29:1–12. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.06.001

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Heath Y, Gifford R (2002) Extending the theory of planned behavior: predicting the use of public transportation. J Appl Soc Psychol 32:2154–2189. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb02068.x

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Heath Y, Gifford R (2006) Free-market ideology and environmental degradation: the case of belief in global climate change. Environ Behav 38:48–71. doi:10.1177/0013916505277998

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Hedenus F, Wirsenius S, Johansson DJA (2014) The importance of reduced meat and dairy consumption for meeting stringent climate change targets. Clim Chang 124:79–91. doi:10.1007/s10584-014-1104-5

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Hines JM, Hungerford H, Tomera A (1987) Analysis and synthesis of research on responsible environmental behavior: a meta-analysis. J Environ Edu 18:1–8. doi:10.1080/00958964.1987.9943482

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Hu L, Bentler PM (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Struct Equ Model 6:1–55

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  Book  Google Scholar 

• Jevons WS (1865) On the variation of prices and the value of the currency since 1782. J Stat Soc Lond 28:294–320

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Kaiser FG, Gutscher H (2003) The proposition of a general version of the theory of planned behavior: predicting ecological behavior. J Appl Social Psychol 33:586–603. doi:10.1111/j.1559-816.2003.tb01914.x

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Kerr NL (1983) Motivation losses in small groups: a social dilemma analysis. J Pers Soc Psychol 45:819–828. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.45.4.819

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Kline RB (1998) Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. Guilford Press, New York

  Google Scholar 

• Knox RE, Inkster JA (1968) Postdecision dissonance at post time. J Pers Soc Psychol 8:319–323. doi:10.1037/h0025528

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Kollmuss A, Agyeman J (2002) Mind the gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? Environ Educ Res 8:239–260. doi:10.1080/13504620220145401

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Lindenberg S, Steg L (2007) Normative, gain and hedonic goal frames guiding environmental behavior. J Soc Issues 63:117–137. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00499.x

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Lorenzoni I, Nicholson-Cole SA, Whitmarsh L (2007) Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Global Environ Chang 17:445–459. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.01.004

  Article  Google Scholar 

• McKenzie-Mohr D, Smith W (1999) Fostering sustainable behavior: an introduction to community-based social marketing, 2nd edn. New Society, Canada

  Google Scholar 

• McKenzie-Mohr D, Nemiroff LS, Beers L, Desmarais S (1995) Determinants of responsible environmental behavior. J Soc Issues 51:139–156. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1995.tb01352.x

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Messick DM, Allison ST, Samuelson CD (1988) Framing and communication effects on group members responses to environmental and social uncertainty. In: Maital S (ed) Applied behavioural economics vol. II. Wheatsheaf, Brighton

  Google Scholar 

• O’Connor BP (2000) SPSS and SAS programs for determining the number of components using parallel analysis and Velicer’s MAP test. Behav Res Meth, Instrument Comput 32:396–402. doi:10.3758/BF03200807

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Opotow S, Weiss L (2000) Denial and the process of moral exclusion in environmental conflict. J Soc Issues 56:475–490

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Pelletier N, Tyedmers P (2010) Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000-2050. P Natl Acad Sci 107:18371–18374. doi:10.1073/pnas.1004659107

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Pickett GM, Kangun N, Grove SJ (1993) Is there a general conserving consumer? a public policy concern. J Publ Policy Market 12:234–243

  Google Scholar 

• Ramankutty N, Evan A, Monfreda C, Foley J (2008) Farming the planet: geographic distribution of global agricultural lands in the year 2000. Global Biogeochem Cy 22:GB1003. doi:10.1029/2007GB002952

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Samelson W, Zeckhauser R (1988) Status quo bias in decision making. J Risk Uncertain 1:7–59. doi:10.1007/BF00055564

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Schiffman LG, Kanuk LL, Das M (2006) Consumer behaviour. Pearson Education, Toronto

  Google Scholar 

• Schultz PW, Nolan JM, Cialdini RB, Goldstein NJ, Griskevicius V (2007) The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychol Sci 18:429–434. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01917.x

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Springmann M, Godfray CJ, Rayner M, Scarborough P (2016) Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change. PNAS 113:4146–4151. doi:10.1073/pnas.1523119113

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Staats H (2003) Understanding proenvironmental attitudes and behavior: an analysis and review of research based on the theory of planned behavior. In: Bonnes M, Lee T, Bonaiuto M (eds) Psychological theories for environmental issues. Antony Rowe, Wiltshire, pp 171–202

  Google Scholar 

• Stehfest E, Bouwman L, van Vuuren DP, den Elzen MGJ, Eickhout B, Kabat P (2009) Climate benefits of changing diet. Clim Chang 95:83–102. doi:10.1007/s10584-008-9534-6

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Stern PC (2000) Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. J Soc Issues 56:407–424. doi:10.1111/0022-4537.00175

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Stevens JP (2002) Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences, 4th edn. Erlbaum, Hillsdale

  Google Scholar 

• Swim (2010) Psychology and global climate change: addressing a multifaceted phenomenon and set of challenges. Report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Interface between Psychology and Global Climate Change. American Psychological Association, Washington

  Google Scholar 

• Terwel BW, Harinck F, Ellemers N, Daamen DDL (2009) How organizational motives and communications affect public trust in organizations: the case of carbon dioxide capture and storage. J Environ Psychol 29:290–299. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.11.004

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Uzzell DL (2000) The psycho-spatial dimensions of global environmental problems. J Environ Psychol 20:307–318. doi:10.1006/jevp.2000.0175

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Vartanian LR, Herman CP, Wansink B (2008) Are we aware of the external factors that influence our food intake? Health Psychol 27:533–538. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.27.5.533

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Vermeulen SJ, Campbell BM, Ingram JI (2012) Climate change and food systems. Annual Rev Environ Resour 37:195–222. doi:10.1146/annurev.environ-020411-130608

  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references