Abstract

Despite substantial effort, environmental ethics and policy find their aspirations curtailed by what has been denoted as the value-action gap, the discrepancy between values held, and actual behavior. This gap represents a major challenge to adequately address the environmental changes currently confronting us, including a high rate of biodiversity loss, verging on major extinction.1 Yet current policy and educational efforts worldwide appear insufficient to alter individual behavior to a degree that could slow down, let alone reverse, worrying trends registered and forecasted. This raises questions regarding motivation and volition (the...