Why do people fail to adopt environmental protective behaviors? Toward a taxonomy of environmental amotivation

Individuals' reasons for their lack of motivation toward environmental prot ective behaviors were proposed: amotivation because of strategy, capacity, effort, and helplessness beliefs. Confirmatory factor analyses and correlat ions between the four types of amotivation and constructs related to the en vironment supported the validity of the constructs. A structural model in w hich helplessness beliefs could be predicted by the other sets of beliefs, and wherein strategy and ability beliefs resulted from effort beliefs, was tested. All estimated parameters were significant, with the exception of on e link: amotivation because of effort beliefs did not display a significant relationship with helplessness beliefs. The importance of understanding wh y individuals may be amotivated and the strategies liable to help reduce th eir lack of motivation are discusse.