Dimensionality of Environmental Values and Attitudes: Empirical Evidence from Malaysia

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the dimensions of environmental values from the combination of biospheric and altruistic values; and the dimensions of environmental attitudes using a revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale in a developing country. The unit of analysis was individual respondents who live in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Descriptive, reliability, exploratory, and confirmatory factor analyses were used to analyze the 500 useable data. The findings supported the reliability and validity of the research instruments. Both environmental values and attitudes are recommended as a single dimensional rather than multidimensional structure in a multicultural context of Malaysia. Respondents placed altruistic and biopsheric values in the same environmental value cluster, and a shorter version of the revised NEP scale is provided. As such, segregating environmental values and attitudes into multiple dimensions to segment and target individuals in Malaysia is not recommended. The distinction between altruistic and biopsheric values has rarely been validated in empirical research; and the suitability of the revised NEP scale to measure environmental attitudes is debatable due to the issues of its reliability, dimensionality, and applicability in the context of a non-Western developing country.