How love of nature promotes green consumer behaviors: The mediating role of biospheric values, ecological worldview, and personal norms

Previous studies have pointed out the importance of emotional affiliation with nature in fostering environmentalism, but the mechanisms through which such emotional motives influence pro-environmental behaviors are still unclear. To address this issue, this study introduced love of nature into the value-belief-norm model as an emotional basis. The model was examined in predicting high-cost and low-cost green consumer behaviors (GCBs) in selected undergraduate student populations in eastern China. Using data from an online survey (N = 291), this study found personal norms positively predicted both high-cost and low-cost GCBs. Ecological worldview positively predicted low-cost GCBs and its effect was larger than that of personal norms. Love of nature had positive effects on biospheric values and personal norms. The relationships between love of nature and the two types of GCBs were mediated mainly by personal norms, ecological worldview, and biospheric values. The results supported the argument that emotional affiliation to nature offers an essential basis for a moral concern that guides GCBs. The findings also suggest moral concerns may be more salient for difficult and inconvenient GCBs.