The relationship of environmental concern with public and private pro-environmental behaviours: A pre-registered meta-analysis

Previous meta-analyses identified a gap between environmental concern and pro-environmental behaviours. However, the failure to differentiate these behaviours and the influence of contextual factors may limit understanding of the gap. This pre-registered meta-analysis evaluated the magnitudes of the correlations of environmental concern, as measured by the New Environmental Paradigm of thinking, with public and private pro-environmental behaviours and investigated the moderating roles of sociocultural contexts. Environmental concern was found positively correlated with public pro-environmental behaviour (k = 10, N = 4636; r = 0.27) and private pro-environmental behaviour (k = 31, N = 20,907; r = 0.35). These two pooled correlations did not differ significantly. Institutionalization of environmental protection did not moderate these correlations, while cultural factors, including individualism, long-term orientation, and external control, did. These findings maintain the utility of environmental concern in facilitating different pro-environmental behaviours and highlight the lack of research attention on public pro-environmental behaviour. Copyright © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.