Estimating one’s own environmental impact: others, acceptability and offsetting (Estimando el propio impacto ambiental: los demás, lo aceptable y lo compensable)

ABSTRACT Despite people’s concern for the environment, there are psychological barriers that make it difficult to adopt a pro-environmental lifestyle, including difficulties in estimating the environmental impact of behaviours. In a first study (n = 374), we see that, when estimating the environmental impact of our own behaviours, we believe that pro-environmental actions can offset the environmental impact of those that are harmful to the environment. In addition, we believe that others have a greater impact. A second study (n = 497) finds that people who believe they have a lower impact on the environment than others and less than should be deemed acceptable display less intent to behave pro-environmentally. These findings highlight the difficulty people face in knowing the environmental consequences of their own behaviour, as well as the importance of perceptions regarding others’ behaviours in explaining the intent to behave pro-environmentally.