Warm glow vs. altruistic values: How important is intrinsic emotional reward in proenvironmental behavior?

•Operationalizes warm glow as intrinsic emotional reward in proenvironmental behavior.•Warm glow is a stronger driver of proenvironmental behavior than altruism.•Warm glow mediates effects of altruism on proenvironmental behavior.•Warm glow explains further variance in addition to the process explanation of altruism effects.•Warm glow provides a reinforcing mechanism in pro-environmental behavior.

This research addresses the role of warm glow as an antecedent of proenvironmental behavior in a comparative study of the behavioral effects of warm glow and altruistic personality traits and values. So far the influences of altruism and warm glow have not been analyzed simultaneously. Two online surveys with representative population samples show that warm glow has a stronger influence on proenvironmental intentions than altruism. However, the study also provides a process explanation for the decreased influence of altruism when warm glow is introduced into the model. Results show that warm glow mediates the effects of altruism, but that introducing warm glow together with altruism also explains additional variance of proenvironmental behavior, apart from the indirect effect of altruism. Further findings support a reinforcing mechanism by which warm glow strengthens the effect of prior proenvironmental behavior on future intention. Implications for the promotion of proenvironmental behavior are discussed.