Group-based approaches to understand and promote individuals' environmental behaviors

Many environmental problems, and corresponding mitigation and adaptation strategies, are inherently social. Yet, most environmental research has employed a rather individualistic approach.

In this symposium, we will discuss the social context in which environmental behaviors occur. We will specifically focus on the role groups can play in understanding individuals’ environmental behaviors, and how knowledge about groups could be utilized to encourage more sustainable behaviors.
Importantly, individuals' social environment – and particularly the groups they belong to – can exert a strong influence on individuals’ environmental engagement. Groups define how we see ourselves, what behaviors and beliefs are appropriate (or not) and - thereby - guide what we do. In addition, many environmental behaviors are social, and many mitigation and adaptation strategies require groups of individuals to change collectively. It is therefore crucial to consider groups to effectively understand and change people’s environmental behaviors and beliefs.

In this symposium we will focus on different aspects of groups that could influence environmental behaviors and beliefs, namely: how identity formation within sustainable community initiatives creates a social context that fosters sustainable energy use (speaker 1), how social identity can
influence support or opposition for environmental policy (Speaker 2), how gender and gender stereotypes influence pro-environmental behaviors (speaker 3), how perceived group values can be used to change individuals’ pro-environmental behaviors (speaker 4), and how outcomes of collective
action can transform choices of supporters of social movements (Speaker 5).