We underestimate motivation when only looking at overt pro-environmental behaviour.

Underestimating motivation more likely to disadvantage those in vulnerable groups.

Difficulty of pro-environmental behaviour depends on context and resources.

We should believe people when they say they care about protecting the environment.

Removing barriers likely more important than strengthening motivation.

When someone tells us that they care about protecting the environment, should we believe them? Some say we can only tell how motivated someone is to protect the environment by looking at their overt pro-environmental behaviour. The behavioural difficulty approach argues that the more difficult and costly the pro-environmental behaviour someone does, the more they care about protecting the environment. In contrast, we argue that when we do not account for people’s abilities to meet behavioural costs based on the context they live in (e.g. housing situation) and their access to resources (e.g. disposable income), we make errors in estimating pro-environmental motivation from overt pro-environmental behaviour, which are likely to be particularly detrimental for those who are already disadvantaged (e.g. on low incomes). We propose a barrier-first approach, focusing on what prevents people from acting on their (strong) motivation to protect the environment and looking to remove those barriers.

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.