Living True, Acting Green: The Day-to-Day Association of Authenticity and Pro-Environmental Behavior

Prior studies have identified a positive between-person association between authenticity and pro-environmental behavior. Nevertheless, how authenticity relates to pro-environmental behavior at the within-person level remains less understood. The current work aimed to investigate the association between authenticity and pro-environmental behavior using a daily diary study. Participants were 303 young adults ( M age = 19.45 years, SD age = 1.87) in a Chinese university who reported their daily levels of authenticity and pro-environmental behavior for 14 consecutive days. Using dynamic structural equation models, the results showed that authenticity from the preceding day positively predicted next-day pro-environmental behavior, whereas engaging in pro-environmental behavior on the prior day was associated with higher authenticity on the subsequent day. This research advances new understanding into the bidirectional relationship between authenticity and pro-environmental behavior in daily life, such that each predicts the other at the within-person level across days. Future research could consider interventions on increasing authenticity to encourage pro-environmental behavior among college students.