Does Going Green Feel Good in Russia: Implicit Measurements With Visual Stimuli

Abstract

Research has shown that in developed environmental cultures, people typically have positive attitudes towards sustainability and pro-environmental behaviour. This has been measured both explicitly, through surveys and interviews, and implicitly, through indirect measures. However, this phenomenon has not yet been extensively studied in emerging environmental cultures, such as Russia. In this study, we adapted two indirect measures, the Affect misattribution procedure and the Affective priming procedure, to examine whether people in Russia have a positive pro-environmental attitude and whether there is a relationship between this implicitly measured attitude and an explicit environmental concern. To ensure reproducibility, we preregistered and conducted two similar studies. The total sample size of the two studies is 394. Our results showed that both measures converge and successfully detect the existence of a positive implicit attitude towards sustainability and pro-environmental behaviour, but there does not appear to be a relationship with environmental concern.