Judith de Groot

• Doctor of Psychology
• Lecturer at University of Groningen

The capability approach posits that human development should be seen according to the extent to which individuals can be, do, and have whatever they value in life: an expansion of individual opportunities that could be related to the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). The present research tested this assumption by employing two approach...

Consumer behaviors related to food consumption, such as meat consumption, is acknowledged to be a main contributor to the environmental problems. Recent research supports the efficacy of normative messages to change these behaviors for the good. Normative messages make the social norm salient in the behavioral context. Research shows that the norma...

Advertisers increasingly use personal information in social media advertisements as a strategy to promote positive brand attitudes. Personalized ads can be perceived as both positive and negative. This two-sided effect of personalization refers to the personalization paradox. An online experiment (N = 209), in which the level of personalization was...

Social norm interventions are a cheap and convenient strategy to promote proenvironmental behavior change. However, the effectiveness of using them has been debated. The present study argues that the effectiveness depends on one's own internal moral compass, as presented by personal norms. We examined this main assumption across 3 studies focusing...

This study examines the influence of social network members (versus strangers) on sustainable food consumption choices to investigate how social influence can challenge the status quo in unsustainable consumption practices. We hypothesized that changes to individual consumption practices could be achieved by revealing ‘invisible’ descriptive and in...

Prolific research suggests identity associates with pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) that are individual and/or group focused. Individual PEB is personally driven, self-reliant, and are conducted on one’s own (e.g., home recycling). Group focused PEB is other people-reliant and completed as part of a group (e.g., attending meetings of an environ...

Given the importance of environmental values (altruistic, biospheric, and egoistic) to pro-environmental behavior, it would be useful to segment the population – an approach known as market segmentation – to tailor pro-environmental messages more effectively. Sociodemographic variables are popular targets for segmentation, as such variables are oft...

Risky energy technologies are often controversial and debates around them are polarized; in such debates public acceptability is key. Research on public acceptability has emphasized the importance of intrapersonal factors but has largely neglected the influence of interpersonal factors. In an online survey (N = 948) with a representative sample of...

Encouraging pro‐environmental behaviour (PEB) is an environmental and societal concern. Encouraging PEB focussing on how consumers see themselves (their identity) has blossomed. However, a theoretical assessment of this research is missing. Three main identity theories seem to best explain the research, specifically, and two‐fold, identity, and soc...

This introductory chapter gives a brief overview of the history of the field of environmental psychology, followed by a discussion of characteristics of the field and a description of the main methods used in research. It discusses four key features of environmental psychology that characterize the field as it stands today: a focus on human‐environ...

Policy makers have proposed various incentive programs to curb consumption-related problems, such as traffic congestion and carbon emissions. While experts consider such programs effective in reducing those problems, consumers are more skeptical. Although this "effectiveness skepticism" is currently viewed as an important cause of public opposition...

Generally, a majority of consumers support the idea of purchasing green products. However, this is often not translated into actual behaviour. We argue that there is a trade-off between the influence of product attributes on purchasing decisions, whereby it is assumed that consumers tend to focus on egoistic product attributes first, followed by gr...

In this exploratory field-study, we examined how normative messages (i.e., activating an injunctive norm, personal norm, or both) could encourage shoppers to use fewer free plastic bags for their shopping in addition to the supermarket’s standard environmental message aimed at reducing plastic bags. In a one-way subjects-design (N = 200) at a local...

Using hydrogen as a fuel in transport may reduce environmental and societal problems resulting from current fossil fuel use, such as climate change and oil dependency. However, this requires both building hydrogen refueling infrastructure and gaining the acceptance of the citizens living nearby. Knowing what motivates citizens to act in favor of or...

In this study, we examine how normative cues influence attitudes towards theft. In a 3 × 2 × 2 within-subjects design (N = 120), we found that people had more negative attitudes towards theft when: 1) a higher value item was stolen than when a lower value item was stolen; 2) the theft took place in a public setting than when it took place in a priv...

This handbook is the first to comprehensively study the interdependent fields of environmental and conservation psychology. In doing so, it seeks to map the rapidly growing field of conservation psychology and its relationship to environmental psychology. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology includes basic research on en...

This handbook is the first to comprehensively study the interdependent fields of environmental and conservation psychology. In doing so, it seeks to map the rapidly growing field of conservation psychology and its relationship to environmental psychology. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology includes basic research on en...

In this article the authors examine whether the significance of biospheric values as a separate cluster next to egoistic and altruistic values is mainly a Western European phenomenon or whether biospheric values are also endorsed as a value in its own right in post-socialist Hungary. In two different samples (N = 856 and N = 840), the multi-group m...

We examined how personal values and perceptions of risks and benefits are associated with the acceptability of nuclear energy (NE). A theoretical model is tested in which beliefs about the risks and benefits of NE mediate the relationship between values and acceptability. The results showed that egoistic values are positively related to the perceiv...

This study examined how policy characteristics (i.e. push versus pull measure and high versus low cost behaviour targeted) and social norms (i.e. strong versus weak social norms) influence the acceptability of environmental policies. Results of a mixed 2x2x2 subjects design among 123 participants showed that pull measures were evaluated as more acc...

This chapter discusses features of values and value theories. It explains which values are important for environmental attitudes and behaviours, and how people can be encouraged to act upon their pro‐environmental values. Values are desirable trans‐situational goals that vary in importance and serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or...

Public acceptability of risky technologies is not only related to the objective risks involved, but to a number of subjective factors as well. Therefore, various studies examined psychological factors related to acceptability judgements. In this chapter we demonstrate the relevance of psychological factors that contribute to the explanation of the...

We examined the predictive power of egoistic, altruistic and biospheric value orientations and six types of self-determined motivations (i.e. intrinsic motivation, integrated regulation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation, and amotivation) toward acting pro-environmentally for explaining two types of pro-environmenta...

We examined factors underlying people's willingness to take action in favor of or against nuclear energy from a moral perspective. We conducted a questionnaire study among a sample of the Dutch population (N = 123). As expected, perceptions of risks and benefits were related to personal norms (PN), that is, feelings of moral obligation toward takin...

Results of two studies are reported, in which we compare the predictive power of three general behavioral antecedents (i.e., values, worldviews, and environmental concern) in explaining personal norms, behavioral intentions (i.e., environmental activism), and acceptability of energy policies. Values—especially biospheric—appeared to be more powerfu...

This paper examines factors influencing prosocial intentions. On the basis of the norm activation model (NAM), we propose that four variables influence prosocial intentions or behaviours: (1) personal norms (PN), reflecting feelings of moral obligation to engage in prosocial behaviour, (2) awareness of adverse consequences of not acting prosocially...

The authors examined the relationships between variables included in the Norm Activation Model (NAM; S. H. Schwartz, 1977) of prosocial behavior. Specifically, they evaluated the strength of 2 commonly used interpretations of this model: the NAM as a mediator model and the NAM as a moderator model. For the most part, 5 studies focusing on a variety...

In most cases, pro-environmental behavior does not maximize individual interests, but mainly benefits other people or the environment. We propose that although acting on the basis of egoistic considerations may result in pro-environmental behavior, altruistic and biospheric considerations provide the most stable basis for pro-environmental behavior...

In environmental literature it is argued that three different value orientations may be relevant for understanding environmental beliefs and intentions: egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric. Until now, the distinction between altruistic and biospheric value orientations has hardly been supported empirically. In this article, three studies are repor...

The ongoing growth of car traffic threatens the environment and urban quality oflife. Therefore, more policies aimed at reducing car use seem to be warranted toovercome these problems. In this paper, we examine whether reducing car use can beexplained from a moral point of view, because car use can be seen as a specific type ofprosocial behaviour....

This study tested whether the theory of planned behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1985) could explain people's intention to use a park-and-ride facility (transferium) in Groningen, The Netherlands. We extended the TPB by including egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric concerns. A questionnaire study was conducted among 218 respondents who regularly visit the ce...

Various scholars argue that egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric value orientations are important for understanding environmental beliefs and behavior. However, little empirical evidence has been provided for the distinction between altruistic and biospheric values. This study examines whether this distinction is valid across different countries (i...

This paper examines how a transport pricing policy aimed to reduce car use may affect individuals’ Quality of Life (QoL), to what extent this policy is acceptable to the public and if people intend to change car use when the policy is implemented. Also, comparisons were made amongst five countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, The Netherlands an...

This study examines relationships between value orientations and perceived quality of life-changes when the cost of car use is doubled. An Internet based survey shows that people expect only minor decreases in overall quality of life when costs of car use increase. People with a strong egoistic value orientation evaluate quality of life consequence...

This study examines relationships between value orientations and perceived quality of life-changes when the cost of car use is doubled. An Internet based survey shows that people expect only minor decreases in overall quality of life when costs of car use increase. People with a strong egoistic value orientation evaluate quality of life consequence...