Factors explaining energy consumption behavioral intentions in Lithuania

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to illustrate and analyze the gap between attitudes toward climate change and behavioral intentions toward energy consumption by assessing and identifying the main factors that create biases in the match between attitudes and behavioral intentions. The research integrates variables of the theory of planned behavior together with several additional elements that are included in the analysis for behavioral intentions testing. The analysis shows that perceived behavioral control is the best predictor of behavioral intention to consume energy. It is followed by concern about climate change.

KEYWORDS:

• Pro-environmental behavior
• energy consumption intentions
• theory of planned behavior
• survey data

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The present research employs secondary data analysis. The data can be accessed through the link: https://hdl.handle.net/21.12137/XDINKS (see Telešienė et al. 2022).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Vidas Vilčinskas

Vidas Vilčinskas is a PhD student and junior researcher at Kaunas University of Technology. His research interests are climate change and the environmental attitude-behavior gap. The topic of his doctoral thesis is “Sociological Explanation of Europeans’ Climate Change Attitude-Behavior Gap”.

Agnė Budžytė

Agnė Budžytė is a junior researcher and a lecturer in the field of sociology at Kaunas University of Technology. She has participated in multiple scientific research projects and submitted her doctoral thesis, “Risk Perception and Social Acceptability of Energy Technologies in the Context of Climate Change,” for defense. Her research interests include risk sociology, technological risks, and environmental and energy sociology.