Measuring Responsible Environmental Behavior: Self-Reported and Other-Reported Measures and Their Differences in Testing a Behavioral Model

Abstract

This study used both self-reported behavior (SB) and other-reported behavior (OB) as measures of responsible environmental behavior (REB) and examined their validities. The validation process included (a) comparing the frequency of behavioral intention (BI), SB and OB; (b) comparing the model fit of Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) with SB and OB as dependent variables respectively; and (c) testing the effect of social desirability on BI, SB, and OB. Data were collected through survey and observation. The observers were 65 students trained to observe their 172 roommates. These roommates also reported their own REBs in the survey. Results showed that frequency of BI and SB were significantly higher than those of OB, and the TPB model predicting SB fitted much better than that predicting OB. These and other findings suggest that researchers should be careful in interpreting results based solely on self-reported REB.