Behavior Change Spillover and the Diffusion of Pro-Environmental Behavior in Social Contexts

Mitigating climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions requires not only technological innovation but also demand-side behavioral changes involving consumption and lifestyles. However, individual-level behavioral changes alone are unlikely to drive large-scale changes across society. A behavioral change in one individual may spread to those around them and then cascade to others because individuals learn from others’ behaviors through individual and social psychological processes. Environmentally unfriendly behaviors may also spread similarly. Understanding the mechanisms behind this spread — psychological processes such as learning, norm adoption, and attitude change, as well as the behavioral and economic conditions that enable or constrain diffusion at scale — is therefore central to explaining how pro-environmental behavior can propagate through social networks and translate into behavioral change at the societal level.In this context, it is useful to distinguish between behavioral spillover and the interpersonal diffusion of behavior. Behavioral spillover refers to changes between different behaviors within the same individual, whereas interpersonal diffusion occurs when one person’s behavior influences the attitudes or behavior of another person through social networks. Although both processes are relevant to this Research Topic, the central focus is on the interpersonal diffusion of pro-environmental behavior through social contexts.The research question is: “In a social network composed of individuals with different psychological learning processes, through which connections and mechanisms do pro-environmental behaviors spread, and under what conditions do improvements in pro-environmental behavior at the individual level translate into behavioral change across the entire society?” We aim to identify the psychological underpinnings of individual decision-making and learning, and the psychological mechanisms — including social norms, identity, and affect — by which pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors diffuse within social networks. We also welcome contributions examining the behavioral and economic dimensions of this diffusion process, including eco-innovation adoption and the modeling of diffusion dynamics at meso and micro levels. For contributions considered within Environmental Psychology, the primary contribution should remain psychological or behavioral, while contributions that are primarily economic or modeling-focused may be better accommodated through the cross-listing with Ecological Economics. Findings on these mechanisms may in turn inform how interventions in realistic social networks are designed.We welcome contributions on:o Novel and contemporary theoretical frameworks for the diffusion of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviorso Individual learning from other people’s pro-environmental behaviorso The distinction and relationship between behavioral spillover within individuals and the interpersonal diffusion of behavior between individualso Novel aspects, conceptualizations, or measurements of learning and diffusion of pro-environmental behavior within social networkso Learning practices and processes of pro-environmental behaviorso Social interactions and shared learning activitieso Psychological simulation modelso Integration of psychological theory with computational or economic modeling of diffusion, including eco-innovation diffusion and adoption at meso and micro levelsThis Research Topic welcomes empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions that advance understanding of the mechanisms of learning and diffusion of pro-environmental behaviors, with a primary focus on psychological and behavioral contributions within Environmental Psychology. We invite research articles that apply novel, contemporary theoretical frameworks and explore methodologies to identify the processes underlying the diffusion of environmentally friendly behaviors. We encourage original research, empirical studies, longitudinal studies, interventions, and methodological studies.This Research Topic is cross-listed with the Ecological Economics section of Frontiers in Environmental Economics, reflecting the complementary behavioral-economics and simulation-modeling perspectives. Contributions that are primarily economic or modeling-focused may be particularly well suited to this cross-listed section. Topic editors: Koichiro Mori, Shinsuke KYOI, Kosuke Takemura Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85235/behavior-change-spillover-and-the-diffusion-of-pro-environmental-behavior-in-social-contexts