Abstract
To investigate the relationships between altruism, environmental concerns, and ordinary people's pro-environmental behaviors that go beyond self-interested NIMBY-ism, we examined measurements of altruism and environmental concerns in a Chinese context and developed a scale that measured people's pro-environmental behaviors at the individual, organizational, and policy level. We then conducted a tailor-made, face-to-face survey (N = 603) and found, first, that old age, gender (being a woman), party affiliation, and education level are positively associated with pro-environmental behaviors at the individual, organizational, and policy levels. We next found that human domination worldviews are negatively associated with individual- and organizational-level pro-environmental behaviors and that eco-centric worldviews are positively associated with individual-level pro-environmental behaviors. Third, we found that altruistic behaviors (prosocial behaviors and/or donations) are positively associated with pro-environmental behaviors. In short, awareness of the ecological crisis and altruism can stimulate people's pro-environmental behaviors in China. Meanwhile, it is doubtful that people care more for the environment after their living standards have improved, because socioeconomic status indicators are not statistically significant for individual-level pro-environmental behaviors.
Highlights
While China’s pollution levels continue to increase, people’s environmental awareness has increased over recent decades (Gilley, 2012; Lu et al, 2019)
To investigate the relationships between altruism, environmental concerns, and ordinary people’s pro-environmental behaviors that go beyond self-interested not in my back yard” (NIMBY)-ism, we examined measurements of altruism and environmental concerns in a Chinese context and developed a scale that measured people’s pro-environmental behaviors at the individual, organizational, and policy level
We found that age, gender, and political status significantly impact people’s proenvironmental behaviors
Summary
While China’s pollution levels continue to increase, people’s environmental awareness has increased over recent decades (Gilley, 2012; Lu et al, 2019). Scholars have argued that people’s environmental concerns may not correspond with their environmental behaviors (Harris, 2006; McGranahan and Tacoli, 2006). McGranahan and Tacoli (2006) found a negative correlation between environmental concerns and pro-environmental behaviors among urban dwellers and rural migrants. The literature suggests three major assumptions that can explain people’s motivation to engage in pro-environmental behaviors: that such behaviors are performed to benefit oneself (i.e., assumption of egoism), to benefit unfamiliar others (i.e., assumption of altruism), or for the act in itself but not for oneself nor anyone else (i.e., assumption of a moral principle) (e.g., Hardin, 1977; Kahneman and Knetsch, 1992; Batson, 1994; Clark et al, 2003; Hong, 2006; Eom et al, 2019)
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