Pro-Environmental Behavior Research: Theoretical Progress and Future Directions

Abstract

Realistic environmental problems drive the growth of pro-environment behavior research, among which the most important progress is about the theoretical innovation and development of pro-environmental behavior. Thus, the main purpose of this paper was to review the literature and help researchers to understand the theoretical progress of pro-environmental behavior. This study systematically analyzed 1806 papers published in SCI-EXPANDED and SSCI databases. It presented the research overview of pro-environmental behavior in terms of status of literature publication, research hotspots and topics. On this basis, this paper further focused on key theoretical papers and summarized three paths of theoretical progress for pro-environmental behavior: theoretical development, theoretical exploration and theoretical integration. Along the theoretical development path, studies mainly apply theories of psychology, sociology and economics to analyze and explain the formation and consequences of pro-environmental behavior. In terms of theoretical exploration, existing studies propose and develop value-belief-norm theory, behavioral theories related to contexts and pro-environmental behavior decision models. Theoretical integration is the direction of future research, such as the combination of rationality and sensibility, and the combination of external and internal causes. Therefore, this paper summarized the theoretical progress of pro-environmental behavior and proposed future research directions, which contribute to its theoretical development.