Abstract
The deterioration and destruction of the environment is becoming more and more considerable and greater efforts are needed to stop it. To accomplish this feat, all members of society must identify with solving environmental problems, environmental collective action being one of the most relevant means of doing so. From this perspective, the analysis of the psychosocial factors that lead to participation in environmental collective action emerges as a priority objective in the research agenda. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the role of “environmental identity”, as conceptualized by Clayton, as a central axis for explaining environmental collective action. The inclusion of the latter in the theoretical framework of the SIMCA (social identity model of collective action) model gives rise to the model that we have called EIMECA (environmental identity model of environmental collective action). Two studies were conducted (344 and 720 participants, respectively), and structural equation modeling was used. The results reveal that environmental identity and a variety of negative emotional affects, as well as group efficacy, accompanied by hope for a simultaneous additive effect, are critical when it comes to predicting environmental collective action.
Highlights
The main objective of the studies in this paper was to test the role of environmental identity, as conceived by Clayton [23], as a form of social—collective—identity when predicting environmental collective action, having framed the latter within the theoretical framework of the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) [19] model, which gave rise to the model that we have called EIMECA
It was of central interest to confirm the predictive capacity of environmental identity, considering the relationships between the variables established in the model
Study 1 confirmed the central role of environmental identity in predicting environmental collective action measures (Hypothesis 1d), adequately addressing the main objective of our study
Summary
Environmental pollution, forest destruction, soil degradation, water scarcity, or species extinction are, among many others, examples of the various problems that currently plague Mother Nature, and with her, plague humanity. There are many people who are not yet aware of this issue (or do not want to acknowledge it), it is clear that there are many of us who can see that we are facing a great environmental crisis, and it is clear that protecting the environment is necessary and fundamental for the existence and preservation of both our planet and the human beings that inhabit it. The magnitude of the current problem is such that, in recent times, the defense of the environment is one of the reasons why citizens have become engaged in social mobilization
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