Learned helplessness moderates the relationship between environmental concern and behavior

Many concerned individuals refrain from meaningful pro-environmental actions. We examined whether self-reported levels of trait learned helplessness moderates this concern-behavior relation. Results confirmed that learned helplessness moderated links between environmental concern and both self-reported and in-vivo measures of pro-environmental behavior, such that concern most strongly predicted behavior when learned helplessness scores were low. Results are reliable after controlling for gender as well as depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. These findings suggest that learned helplessness acts as a barrier to pro-environmental behavior in the face of environmental concern.