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Bamboo anthropomorphism and sustainable behavioral intention: evidence from bamboo as a substitute for plastic in China
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A survey of 926 people across China examined whether thinking of bamboo as humanlike relates to willingness to use it instead of plastic. Seeing bamboo this way did not directly predict such willingness, but was linked to it indirectly, mainly through feelings of guilt about environmental harm and attachment to one's local area.
Background Bamboo, as a sustainable alternative to plastic, offers nature-based solutions to global plastic pollution and public health crises, advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the cognitive mechanisms of the public's sustainable behavioral intention toward bamboo as a substitute for plastic are still not well known. Methods Drawing on the Hierarchy of Effects (HOE) model, this study proposes an integrative cognition–affect–intention framework in which bamboo anthropomorphism is associated with sustainable behavioral intention through place attachment and environmental guilt. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis (MGA) were conducted using 926 valid responses collected from 31 provincial-level administrative regions in China. Regional differences and social norms are added as grouping variables to assess cross-group stability and heterogeneity of the structural relationships. Results Bamboo anthropomorphism was not significantly directly associated with sustainable behavioral intention. Significant indirect associations were observed through place attachment, environmental guilt, and their sequential mediation, with the indirect effect through environmental guilt being the largest. Multi-group analyses indicated overall structural stability, with exploratory path-specific differences across regional and social-norm groups. Conclusion This study refines the application of the HOE model by distinguishing place-based relational affect from self-conscious moral emotion within the cognition–affect–intention process. The findings suggest that bamboo anthropomorphism is associated with sustainable behavioral intention primarily through indirect affective and moral pathways. Exploratory group comparisons further suggest pathway-specific contextual heterogeneity, providing preliminary implications for differentiated environmental communication promoting bamboo-based plastic substitution and supporting the SDGs.
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