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Perceptions of Self-Motives and Environmental Activists’ Motives for Pro-Environmental Behavior

The manuscript presents a thematic analysis of a U.S. adult sample’s self-reported motives and perception of environmental activists’ motives to engage in pro-environmental behavior via a qualitative online survey. I identified themes using a two-stage coding procedure. First, undergraduate research assistants coded all content into 1 or more of 17 inductive content categories. Second, I examined the categories and created five themes based on both inductive and theoretical considerations: (a) harm and care, (b) purity, (c) waste and efficiency, (d) spreading awareness, and (e) self-interest (mostly non-financial). Some themes (harm and care; preserving purity; and self-interest) were consistent with previous research and theory, but themes of waste and efficiency and spreading awareness have been less explored by previous work as key motivators of pro-environmental behavior, suggesting ripe avenues for future research. Conversely, some factors that have been proposed by previous research as key possible motives of pro-environmental behavior were not described by participants in the present work. The endorsement of themes was qualitatively similar across individuals’ descriptions of their own vs. environmental activists’ motives. Collectively, these findings suggest that individuals’ descriptions of common motives for pro-environmental behavior partially aligns with factors commonly proposed in environmental psychology literature, but key discrepancies warrant further investigation.