Energy-saving behavior: the different roles of altruism and of environmentalism

This experimental study, in which 118 university students participated, addresses how environmental and altruistic cues induce energy-saving behavior and intention, and their interaction with environmental and altruistic values, thus testing the influence of context or situational variables in energy-saving behavior and intention. Additionally, it does an empirical approach to the role that environmental and altruistic values may have as individual predictors of energy-saving. Environmental and altruistic situational cues are operationalized by environment and altruism conceptual priming. The results reveal an interaction between situational variables and personal values: environment priming induced more energysaving behavior among individuals with lower altruistic values. The same effect is not observed for energy-saving intention. When the environment and altruism priming were present, individuals with lower altruistic values had less energy-saving intentions. These results underline the importance of distinguishing environmental and altruistic frames and motives when explaining energy-saving behavior.