**1. Introduction**

Energy security plays a critical role in social, economic and environmental development [1]. An adequate energy supply can not only reduce the risk of political extortion, but also control the cost of industrial development. Besides, energy consumption is closely related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as a series of environmental pollution. In addition to developing novel energy-e fficient techniques [2], in the last few decades, governments have paid much attention to e fficient energy consumption and resource conversation. More and more governments implement policies to encourage business owners and households to use equipment with higher energy e fficiency. The European Union, for example, has set up several directives and projects to reduce energy consumption by 20% [3]. Through these energy policies, these countries or regions have not only reduced their dependence on energy imports, but also e ffectively promoted environmental sustainability.

Pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) refer to "individual behaviors to enhance environmental sustainability" [4]. Promoting energy conservation and other PEBs seems a promising strategy for sustainable development: compared with other means [5], behavior-driven approaches generally work with less initial investments and quick returns [6]. Behavior-driven energy-saving solutions have been well considered in several green building schemes [7]. PEBs can be predicted by some psychological and demographic items [8–10]. The theory of personality trait, for example, explains the highly stable individual di fferences in PEB intentions [11,12]. Personality traits refer to factors reflecting individual characteristic patterns of thoughts as well as feelings and further reflecting individual behavioral patterns [13]. Personality traits might influence one's attitude towards PEBs [14–16], and then further contribute to sustainable intentions and behaviors directly or indirectly [17,18]. Some studies support that people with some specific personality characteristics (so-called "green personalities") tend to present stronger attitudes towards PEBs and have more environmental protection potential [12]. This is also in line with some studies on PEB spillover: people performing one PEB have higher likelihoods of performing other PEBs [19,20]. Based on the personality trait theories, research works have further made use of personality characteristics as well as interventions in PEB promotion [21,22].

However, there is growing evidence that people may present di fferent intentions towards di fferent PEBs and in di fferent environments [9,23]. Wells et al. [9], for example, found the spillover e ffect of di fferent resource conservation behaviors in di fferent situations less significant. Especially, people present a remarkable di fference between their PEB intention inside and outside their homes. Tudor et al. [24] also reported the connections and di fferences between PEBs at work and at home, which supported the above statement. Besides, people with similar personality characteristics might present individual di fferences in di fferent PEBs. For example, Tang and Lam [25] noted that agreeable people who consider more about others' feelings are more likely to pay for green hotels consuming less energy and resources. However, Kamal and Barpanda [26] found that not agreeable but extroverted students tend to save energy at school. Shen et al. [27] found the contribution of both of the above two personality traits to household energy-saving behavior (HESB) insignificant. Thorough understanding of the individual di fference in energy-saving attitudes and intentions at di fferent situations is important for effective energy policy-making as well as energy-saving intervention development. Thus, it is necessary to reveal the contribution of "energy-saving personality traits" to the mentioned individual di fferences.

This study aims to reveal the personality basis of individual di fferences in attitudes as well as intentions towards energy conservation inside and outside the family environment. There are only a few pro-environmental behavior studies focusing on the developing areas. To bridge this gap, this study, however, conducts the field experiment with 800 participants in Xi'an, a typical city in the northwest region, the most undeveloped area in China. Participants are divided into two groups focusing on HESB and o ffice energy-saving behavior (OESB), respectively. HESB is a typical respective of in-home pro-environmental behavior (IHPEB), which refers to "individual actions for environmental protection at households or private spaces". OESB represents out-of-home pro-environmental behavior (OHPEB), which refers to "individual actions for pro-environmental purpose in public spaces". The study first reviews the recent literature on the relationship between personality traits and PEBs in di fferent situations and introduces the design and conduct process of the experiment in detail. This research then analyzes the experiment data with the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Based on the analysis results, the paper discusses the potential causes of the results, the policy implications of the findings and the limitations of this study. This study investigates the influence of personality traits on energy-saving attitude in o ffice and household environments. The findings of this study would provide a personality explanation of the individual di fferences in energy conservation attitudes in di fferent situations. The findings would be helpful in energy-saving intervention and policy-making.
