Behavioral Consistency: Environmental Engagement Perspective

Abstract

Behavioral consistency, a judgment heuristic to which people default to ease decision making, appears to be an acceptable social norm. Is this phenomenon true to peoples’ behavior in the workplace and at home? Some studies suggest that human behavior at home and at work is not always consistent because people have different home and work persona. To provide an interesting argument to this apparent contradiction, this paper examines the behavioral consistency in environmental engagement tasks at home and at work of 213 faculty from 9 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Philippines. The study used Quantitative Approach employing the comparative and correlational analyses of the survey results derived from the duly validated instruments. Pearson Product Moment Correlation test shows that the respondents’ environmental engagement at home is associated with their environmental engagement at work (r=.445, p< .05). Comparative analysis also reveals that 85% of the respondents have consistent environmental behavior at home and at work. However, environmental knowledge does not escalate the respondents’ environmental behavior (r=.043, p> .05). High degree of behavioral consistency is shown in the level of environmental engagement on tasks that have direct economic value to the respondents like energy and water conservation both at home and at work. However, inconsistency in the level of environmental engagement is revealed on tasks with abstract value like waste segregation and recycling. The study concludes that the degree of consistency in the level of environmental engagement is influenced more by the cost-benefit principle than by the environmental knowledge. The study contributes to the latent literature of Consistency Theory and Environmental Engagement.

Keywords:Behavioral Consistency, Environmental Engagement, Environmental Knowledge, Mediating Environmental Behavior

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/14-24-03

Publication date: December 31^st 2022