Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1445549
This article is part of the Research Topic The Role of Empathy in Behavioral Change Toward Ethical Consumption and Environmental Sustainability View all articles

Exploring Social Media Determinants in Fostering Pro-Environmental Behavior: Insights from Social Impact Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior

Provisionally accepted
Chi-Horng Liao Chi-Horng Liao *
  • Tzu Chi University, Hualien City, Taiwan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigates the impact of social media on pro-environmental behavior (PEB) through the lens of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Impact Theory. By employing both Variance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (VBSEM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), the research aims to elucidate the role of social media in shaping Environmental Attitude (EA) and Subjective Norms (SN), and how these factors contribute to Behavioral Intentions (BI) that ultimately influence PEB. Additionally, it examines the moderating effect of Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) on the relationship between BI and PEB. The analysis is based on data collected from two distinct samples: 1200 participants from Taiwan for the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis and 602 respondents for the ANN study. The dual methodological approach integrates SEM to explore causal relationships and ANN to enhance predictive accuracy. The SEM findings reveal that social media significantly affects both EA and SN, with the exception of Social Networking Site Involvement (SNSI), which does not significantly impact EA. The study also demonstrates that BI mediates the relationship between EA and PEB. However, BI does not mediate the SN-PEB relationship, and the link between SN and BI is found to be non-significant. Moreover, empirical evidence suggests that PBC moderates the BI-PEB relationship, with a stronger influence observed under higher levels of PBC and a weaker influence under lower levels. These results underscore the complex dynamics between social media factors and pro-environmental behavior. The study concludes with a discussion on the implications of these findings, the limitations encountered, and potential avenues for future research.

    Keywords: Pro-environmental behavior (PEB), Social impact theory, Theory of planned behavior (TPB), Artificial neural networks (ANN), and Variance Based Structural Equation Modelling (VBSEM)

    Received: 07 Jun 2024; Accepted: 17 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chi-Horng Liao, Tzu Chi University, Hualien City, Taiwan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.