Influence of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and environmental concerns on pro-environmental behavioral intention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

Humanity is in a situation in which climate change has a significant impact on all countries of the world. Countermeasures can mainly be taken through changes in people's behavior or through technical innovations (von Borgstede et al., 2013). This study aims to investigate the connection between attitude toward sustainable behavior in relation to the environment and climate and the intention to change the behavior regarding nature and environmental protection. Using a structural equation model with Lavaan (0.6–9) (Rossel, 2012) and a sample of 14,233 personal face-to-face interviews in Germany, this study analyzes the importance of the new ecological paradigm (NEP) and environmental concerns (EC) as factors influencing attitudes toward sustainable behavior in the context of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). It also measures attitude on intention to change the behavior regarding nature and environmental protection in the four areas of consumption, energy, food, and mobility. Egoistic environmental concerns and pessimistic view (based on NEP) were found to play the greatest impact on attitude toward sustainable behavior. The results show that the egoistic view has the strongest influence on attitudes toward sustainable behavior related to the environment and climate. Accordingly, behavior change can only be effective if the behavior change measures lead to personal consequences. The influence of attitude toward sustainable behavior on intention to change behavior has the largest effect on the areas of consumption and energy.