Be an Eco-Friendly Global Citizen: The Causal Effect of Global Human Identification on ProEnvironmental Behavior.

Abstract

With the development of globalization, the relationships among people worldwide are becoming closer. To elucidate what causal effect such a tendency of globalization generates on pro-environmental behaviors, the present research first manipulated global human identification, the highest level of social identity, and investigated its influence on people's pro-environmental behavior with three experimental studies. Study 1 applied an interview video to prime global human identification and recruited a small sample in the lab setting. Study 2 then promoted global human identification by reading materials with a larger sample. In order to examine to what extent the effect of manipulation on PEB could be attributed to global human identification rather than lower-level identification, Study 3 utilized a similar design as that in Study 2 and simultaneously measured national identification, a specific lower-level identification, after manipulating global human identification. Study 1 preliminarily observed the effect of global human identification on immediate pro-environmental behavior in the laboratory. Study 2 further confirmed this effect on future pro-environmental intentions. Study 3 replicated these findings and showed that the effect of the manipulation on pro-environmental behavior should be primarily attributed to increased global human identification rather than lower-level identification. Our three studies demonstrated that global human identification could positively influence individuals' pro-environmental behavior. This research provides empirical evidence for the social identity model of pro-environmental action and suggests that global human identification may be utilized to improve individuals' pro-environmental behaviors.