Emphasizing Jobs and Trees: Increasing the Impact of Proenvironmental Messages on Migrants

Abstract

We examined whether financially relevant proenvironmental messages increase immigrants' motivation to perform proenvironmental behaviors. We first assessed migrants' tendencies to value a comfortable lifestyle (Study 1) and financial success (Study 2). We then examined whether migrants perceive a proenvironmental message tailored to fit these financial concerns to be personally relevant (Study 2) and report greater motivation to behave proenvironmentally after reading the message (Study 3). Compared with nonmigrants, migrants prioritized lifestyle and financial success goals, perceived the tailored message to be more personally meaningful, and indicated increased proenvironmental motivation after reading the message. We discuss implications for improving proenvironmental campaigns.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant to Penelope Lockwood. We are grateful to Alison Chasteen for comments on an earlier draft.

Notes

¹Proenvironmental messages and dependent measures used in Studies 2 and 3 are available upon request.

Note. Standard deviations are in parentheses.