Author(s) This pre-registration is currently anonymous to enable blind peer-review. It has 4 authors.
Pre-registered on 2022/09/27 - 02:32 AM (PT)
1) Have any data been collected for this study already? No, no data have been collected for this study yet.
2) What's the main question being asked or hypothesis being tested in this study? The objective of this study is to explore what are the psychological determinants of individuals' intention to engage in individual and collective actions in favour of biodiversity conservation, and whether they are the same in different countries (China, USA, France, Germany).
Since the goal is exploratory, we will carry out a correlational study collecting data through a questionnaire analysing the different dependent measures included in our model, inspired by the Protection Motivation Theory (including dimensions such as psychological distance of biodiversity loss, problem awareness, collective and participative efficacy), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (including dimensions such as social norms, perceived control, attitudes), and the SIMPEA (including dimensions such as social identity). Moreover, we will measure whether environmental values as well as stereotypes about environmentalists have a role to play in determining intended action or inaction.
3) Describe the key dependent variable(s) specifying how they will be measured. All measures will be made available in a supplementary material file attached to the publication of the research.
Psychological distance of biodiversity loss is measured by 4 items, two measuring social distance and two temporal distance. It will be treated as one dimension.
Social identity will be measured through three items inspired by the work of Bamberg et al. (2015).
Problem awareness will be measured by three items "Biodiversity is decreasing on the earth.", "The way we live contributes to the global deterioration of biodiversity.", "By destroying biodiversity, humans are endangering the very foundations of life."
Environmental concerns will be measured via the scale by Schultz (2001).
Descriptive social norm will be measured through three items created ad-hoc for this study ("people who are important to me prefer buying products produced in an eco-friendly way", "people who are important to me live frugally so that future generations can continue to benefit from nature's diversity and wealth", "people who are important to me are willing to pay more for products that are produced in an eco-friendly way"). Attitudes and behavioural control also will be measured by items created ad hoc for this study, asking individuals whether choosing products produced in an eco-friendly way and paying more for such products is good and easy for them.
Participative and collective efficacy will be measured by three items each, inspired by the work of Hart and Feldman (2016).
Stereotypes concerning environmentalists will be measured by the same items used by Bashir et al. (2013).
Environmental cognitive alternatives will be measured through six items inspired by the scale by Wright et al. (2020).
Finally, individual and collective behavioural intentions will be measured through a series of items inspired by past work by Bamberg and Rees, as well as by recent work by Korsunova.
4) How many and which conditions will participants be assigned to? This is a correlational study, not an experimental study. No experimental conditions are created.
5) Specify exactly which analyses you will conduct to examine the main question/hypothesis. To test the internal validity of the items, cronbach's alphas will be carried out on the scales that have been already validated in the past.
Moreover, a factorial analysis will be carried out on the intention items, to investigate whether they charge on specific factors. Multiple linear regressions will be then carried out to analyse the influence of the dependent variables on the intentions.
6) Describe exactly how outliers will be defined and handled, and your precise rule(s) for excluding observations. Outliers will be identified for each key variable with the outlierTest, hatvalues and with cook.distance functions in R. Analyses will be performed with and without outliers, and any discrepancies in the key results will be reported.
7) How many observations will be collected or what will determine sample size? No need to justify decision, but be precise about exactly how the number will be determined. Following Jackson's (2003) recommendations, we will select at least 20 participants per estimated parameter in the model that we aim to test; 21*20 = at least 420 participants (11 variances for each variable + minimum 10 covariances or direct effects = 21 estimated parameters) per country. We will thus collect data from 500 individuals in each country, to ensure the sample needed after eliminating the outliers.
8) Anything else you would like to pre-register? (e.g., secondary analyses, variables collected for exploratory purposes, unusual analyses planned?) Nothing else to pre-register.
