Social Support Determines Consumer Performance of Environment-friendly Behaviors

Environmental degradation is a global problem. In South Korea, despite an increase in environment-friendly attitudes, such behaviors and actions have been declining. This study examines the impact of social support on environment-friendly behaviors and explores potential measures to improve social support. An online questionnaire was conducted with 1,000 participants. The group with high social support showed a higher level of performance in terms of environment-friendly behaviors compared with the group with low social support. In the group with lower social support, higher emotional support and material support were associated with an increase in environment-friendly behaviors. In the group with high social support, all social support variables were significantly high, especially the effect of material support. Based on these results, we conclude that inducing emotional encouragement and support could enhance environment-friendly behaviors among the group with low social support. The group with high social support must be strengthened by providing material support to enhance environment-friendly behaviors.