Pro-environmental Behaviour of Tourists in Uzbekistan: Application of Protection Motivation Theory

2.2.1 Understanding the PMT to explain pro-environmental behavior

The PMT is now extensively employed in various areas, such as characterizing pro-environmental behaviors, despite the fact that it was initially used in research on health-related risk behaviors (Dang et al., 2012). For instance, Bubeck et al. (2018) used the PMT to examine how flood-prone families in Germany along the Rhine River minimize their risk of flooding. The findings of their investigation indicated that response efficacy and self-efficacy, in particular, are significant factors in terms of behavior related to mitigation. According to Keshavarz and Karami (2016), the core dimensions of the PMT—response efficacy, perceived severity, response costs, perceived vulnerability, and self-efficacy—are key determinants of Iranian farmers' pro-environmental behavior during drought. The PMT is a useful model to characterize pro-environmental behaviors, according to Bockarjova and Steg (2014), who applied it to describe pro-environmental behavior among Dutch drivers. The most significant obstacle to adopting protective behavior, according to their findings, was the combination of the high and unjustified costs of protective behaviors on the one hand and the considerable advantages of the prevalent non-protective behaviors on the other. The dimensions of the PMT, such as perceived severity, response efficacy, and self-efficacy regarding climate change adaptation, were also revealed by Kim et al. (2013) to be significant predictors of American and Korean students' intentions to engage in pro-environmental actions. Overall, the PMT is especially helpful in examining pro-environmental behaviors because, as Bockarjova and Steg (2014) noted, "it illustrates how various psychological processes and mechanisms can interact, serves as a reminder that all of these processes and mechanisms can simultaneously contribute to misestimation and inaction, and suggests multicomponent programs that are most probable to succeed in efforts to raise people's prediction of environmental threats and/or to increase their engagement in environmental protection." In addition, Janmaimool (2017) found in a study that the PMT would be a good match to explain sustainable western management behaviors among office workers in Bangkok, Thailand.
Protection Motivation Theory can be targeted to promote pro-environmental choices to reduce environmental risks. Protection Motivation Theory not only focuses on cost and benefits of adaptive behavior that reduce environmental risks, but also considers benefits of current products or practices that increase the likelihood of maladaptive behavior that in turn increase environmental risks. Protection Motivation Theory is considering individual costs of adaptive action; but importantly, Protection Motivation Theory accommodates aspects of collective action as well (Bockarjova & Steg, 2014). A distinctive feature of Protection Motivation Theory is that the model assumes that individuals consider current behavior as well as their expectation of a new behavior in terms of respective costs and benefits when making pro-environmental choices. This way, Protection Motivation Theory allows identifying both barriers and facilitators to adoption of protective behavior.