Enhancing proenvironmental behavior to tackle climate crisis issues: A social psychological perspective

Earth’s warmest temperature in the world’s history records occurred in September 2020 and at the same time is an indication of climate crisis. The climate crisis not only affected nature, but also other aspects such as social inequality and public welfare. The causes of climate crisis were closely related to people daily habits and activities, such as excessive use of electricity, plastic, fossil fuel, and private transportation. In the context of public welfare, the climate crisis has impacts on the lack of access to clean water and decreased food security due to extreme weather changes. In this article, we propose a theory of social psychology, The Norm Activation Model, as a theoretical basis to address climate crisis issues. We used literature review as research method. Based on The Norm Activation Model, people should raise environmental concerns through application of new habits. The environmental concerns were affected by two main factors of human behavior: Awareness of Consequences and Ascription of Responsibility. The two factors were assessed to determine the possibility to increase individual awareness and sense of responsibility on environmental issues. When both are acquired by individuals, they will show pro-environmental behaviors and habits.