From Self to Society: Comparing the Social-Psychological Drivers of Personal-Sphere, Social Diffusion, and Civic Action Behaviors in Native Plant Gardening

To reach conservation goals, individuals must engage in pro-environmental action. Achieving rapid, large-scale change requires that individuals change their personal behavior and engage in actions to influence their social networks and broader social systems. We compared the factors influencing personal-sphere, social diffusion, and civic action behaviors in the context of native plant gardening. A nationwide survey (n = 1,201) found that each behavior type was motivated by distinct, often behavior-specific, variables, with some overlap. Self-efficacy predicted personal-sphere behavior; self-efficacy, personal norms, descriptive norms, dynamic norms, and moral exporting predicted social diffusion behavior; introversion predicted civic action behavior; and behavior-specific personal norms predicted all three corresponding behavior types. Subjective knowledge was the only variable that predicted all three behaviors. Personal-sphere behaviors were the most commonly practiced, followed by social diffusion behaviors and civic action behaviors, suggesting that motivating the latter may require targeting their unique social-psychological drivers through outreach interventions.