A key issue for ecological economics concerns the processes whereby people engage in ecologically responsible behavior and contribute to environmental quality even when they involve a personal cost for a shared benefit. This paper explores the relative impact of intrinsic motivation versus external conditions and economic incentives on eight pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs). Previous research has mostly focused on one of these two aspects or studied whether external incentives can crowd out moral motivation. More comprehensive accounts of the interplay of these factors are rare and mostly dated or report small-scale experiments and case studies. Using a data set measuring PEBs and environmental attitudes in the European Union’s 28 member states, this paper tests both sets of variables on a wider scale. It assesses the importance of intrinsic motivation as a dominant factor and shows how differing levels of intrinsic motivation influence the effectiveness of external conditions, such as monetary incentives and green infrastructures. External incentives are found to interact positively with intrinsic motivation. The findings also suggest that the influence of external factors varies depending on whether the behavior examined is cost neutral or implies costs or rewards. We further show that other non-strictly-related factors can affect the salience of an environmental norm and consequently the adoption of the corresponding behavior. Pressing economic preoccupations can distract individuals from behaving pro-environmentally, and PEBs are more likely to arise in individuals who care about the future. The results suggest that two-pronged policies, which take into account intrinsic motivation and external conditions, are needed to reach a high observance rate in the population in the short and in the long term. The wider significance of these results for environmental policy and policy guidance for each of the eight PEBs is discussed.
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