Straw energy utilization has been considered a prosocial practice, which is conducive to increasing the efficiency of agricultural waste resources and improving the ecological environment. Individuals' willingness to engage in such a prosocial technology relies on the double constraints of rational and altruistic factors. This paper develops a theoretical model to understand the function of rationality and altruism in rural households' acceptance of straw energy utilization. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is employed to test and evaluate the research data collected by a cross-sectional survey in Northeast China. Results display that 82.7% of the variance is explained by the proposed model in rural households' acceptance of straw energy utilization. Personal norms, attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm have significantly positive effects on the willingness to adopt straw energy utilization, and the effects sequentially weaken (i.e., 0.422, 0.245, 0.167, 0.166, respectively). The influence coefficients of rational predictors are 0.578, while the influence coefficients of altruistic predictors are 0.422. Overall, rational predictors exert more significant effects on rural households' acceptance of straw energy utilization than altruistic predictors. In addition, promotion strategies and policies for straw energy utilization are provided based on the motivation analysis in rural households' acceptance. •This study focuses on the tradeoff between two discrepant streams of antecedents.•A theoretical model is proposed considering rational and altruistic factors jointly.•Rationality is the dominant factor in the acceptance of straw energy utilization.