The limited influence of climate norms on leisure air travel

This paper adds to our understanding of how people's climate change concern and norms influence their leisure air travel. It does so by examining the roles of Norwegians' beliefs about climate change and emissions from air travel, their felt responsibility to limit emissions (personal norm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of sustainable tourism Vol. 31; no. 10; pp. 2250 - 2269
Main Authors Aasen, Marianne, Thøgersen, John, Vatn, Arild, Dunlap, Riley E., Fisher, Dana R., Hellevik, Ottar, Stern, Paul C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Clevedon Routledge 03.10.2023
Multilingual Matters Ltd
Subjects
Air transportation
Air travel
Aircraft
Climate change
climate concern
COVID-19
Emissions
Emissions control
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
institutions
Leisure
Leisure travel by air
Multivariate statistical analysis
Norms
Norway
Pandemics
personal norm
Social norms
Travel
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Summary:This paper adds to our understanding of how people's climate change concern and norms influence their leisure air travel. It does so by examining the roles of Norwegians' beliefs about climate change and emissions from air travel, their felt responsibility to limit emissions (personal norm), and expectations and behaviors of friends and family (social norms) in such travel. A representative sample of Norwegians was surveyed in 2019 and 2020 (N = 2842), based on a framework combining institutional and social-psychological perspectives. Structural equation modeling of the data reveals that leisure air travel is habituated and part of a lifestyle, supported by social norms, self-enhancement values and urban residency. Personal norms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from flying are beginning to emerge in Norway, but their effect on leisure air travel is small and only indirect. Our findings suggest the need for interventions to complement and potentially amplify the emerging moralization process and support an evolution of new habits and travel lifestyle to limit the emissions from leisure air travel substantially. The disruption of travel habits by the COVID-19 pandemic might ease such a process.
ISSN:0966-9582
1747-7646
DOI:10.1080/09669582.2022.2097687