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Chapter 24 - The Belief–Action Gap in Environmental Psychology: How Wide? How Irrational?

from Environmental Effects on Beliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

By
Aurore Grandin ,
Mélusine Boon-Falleur  and
Coralie Chevallier
Edited by
Julien Musolino ,
Joseph Sommer  and
Pernille Hemmer
Julien Musolino
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Joseph Sommer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Pernille Hemmer
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

The belief–action gap was originally conceptualized by psychologists who aimed to ground behaviour in beliefs but found that their models had little predictive value. The recurrent use of this concept often comes with the assumption that human behaviour is somewhat irrational or weirdly misaligned with their beliefs. This gap is particularly striking in the environmental domain, where many people seemingly think one way but act another. In this chapter, we review a number of factors that hinder general beliefs from translating into actual behaviors. We emphasize the existence of measurement issues, information deficits about the exact impact of one’s actions, structural factors, and psychological factors that together impact the robustness of the association between beliefs and actions. In particular, socio-cognitive factors have a massive impact on people’s decisions to act in ways that are aligned with their deep-seated beliefs. Once all these factors are properly taken into account, it becomes clear that the belief–action gap is not a token of human irrationality but should in fact be expected.

Keywords

belief–action gapknowledge–action gapvalue–action gapattitude–behaviour gapbehavioural changepro-environmental behavioursocial cognitionsustainability
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cognitive Science of Belief
A Multidisciplinary Approach
 , pp. 536 - 554
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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