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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1494761
This article is part of the Research Topic How Do Behavior Science Interventions to Reduce Environmental Impacts Work in The Real World? View all 16 articles

Social Environment, Low-carbon Cognition and Low-carbon Consumption Behaviors of Youth Groups: Evidence from Xizang, China

Provisionally accepted
Huifang Ma Huifang Ma 1Hailin Ma Hailin Ma 2Qin Chen Qin Chen 3*
  • 1 Politics and Public Administration College, Qinghai Nationalities University, Qinghai, China
  • 2 Key Laboratory of High altitudes Brain Science and Environmental acclimation, Xizang University, Lhasa, China
  • 3 School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

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

    This study examines the factors influencing low-carbon consumption behavior from three perspectives: the social environment, low-carbon cognition, and conformity consumption. A theoretical model of low-carbon consumption has been developed, and data were collected through a questionnaire survey involving 600 young individuals in the Xizang Autonomous Region. The hypothesized relationships were tested using structural equation modeling techniques. The findings indicate that the social environment has a significant positive impact on both low-carbon cognition and behavior. Furthermore, low-carbon cognition is shown to positively influence low-carbon behavior. In terms of the relationship between the social environment and low-carbon behavior, it is found that low-carbon cognition acts as a mediating variable. Additionally, it was observed that lower levels of conformity consumption negatively moderate both the relationship between the social environment and low-carbon behavior as well as that between low-carbon cognition and behavior.

    Keywords: the youth group, Low-carbon consumption, Influence factor, Low-carbon cognition, social environment

    Received: 12 Sep 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Ma and Chen. 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: Qin Chen, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    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.