The Norm Activation Model: An exploration of the functions of anticipated pride and guilt in environmental behaviour

Summary

The Norm Activation Model (NAM; Schwartz, 1977) is a vested model that explains altruistic and environmentally friendly behaviour. Although research states that anticipated pride and guilt are associated with the NAM, these associations are not yet fully understood. The current study provides an overview of the literature that refers to anticipated pride and guilt within the NAM. Moreover, we aim to increase our understanding of these associations through theoretical arguments and a study conducted in the Netherlands. We hypothesised that anticipated pride and guilt cause individuals to behave themselves in a manner that is in line with personal norms. This proposition regarding the self-regulatory function of anticipated pride and guilt was confirmed by our study; anticipated emotions mediate the effects of personal norms on behaviour. These associations remained after including the Theory of Planned Behaviour in the NAM, although in the integrated NAM–TPB model, anticipated emotions affected behaviour via behavioural intentions. Implications regarding these findings are discussed.