Environment-Specific vs. General Knowledge and Their Role in Pro-environmental Behavior.

Mattis Geiger,Oliver Wilhelm,Sonja Maria Geiger

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00718

Mattis Geiger, Oliver Wilhelm + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00718

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Abstract

Environmental knowledge has been established as a behavior-distal, but necessary antecedent of pro-environmental behavior. The magnitude of its effect is difficult to estimate due to methodological deficits and variability of measures proposed in the literature. This paper addresses these methodological issues with an updated, comprehensive and objective test of environmental knowledge spanning a broad variety of current environment related topics. In a multivariate study (n = 214), latent data modeling was employed to explore the internal factor structure of environmental knowledge, its relationship with general knowledge and explanatory power on pro-environmental behavior. We tested competing factor models and uncovered a general factor of environmental knowledge. The main novel finding of the study concerns its relationship with general knowledge. Employing an established test of general knowledge to measure crystallized intelligence revealed a near perfect relationship between environmental and general knowledge. This general knowledge (including the environmental domain) accounted for 7% of the variance in environmentally significant behavior. Age, additionally to acquired education, emerged as a common predictor for both general knowledge and environmentally significant behavior. We discuss the consequences of the strong relation between general and environmental knowledge and provide a possible explanation for the positive age-environmental conservation relationship reported in the literature.

Highlights

THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE IN PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORKnowledge about environmental issues is thought to be a precondition for meaningful proenvironmental behavior and its transmission is considered a key component and criterion for successful implementation of environmental education programs (UNESCO, 2005; Heimlich and Ardoin, 2008; Kaiser et al, 2008)
The main aim of this paper is to explore the relation of environmental knowledge to general knowledge and the predictive power that each has on environmentally significant behavior
Toward this end we present an updated, objective environmental knowledge test, and investigate its measurement properties that challenge the distinction of different knowledge types in existing models of environmental competence

Summary

Introduction

THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE IN PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORKnowledge about environmental issues is thought to be a precondition for meaningful proenvironmental behavior and its transmission is considered a key component and criterion for successful implementation of environmental education programs (UNESCO, 2005; Heimlich and Ardoin, 2008; Kaiser et al, 2008). If environmental knowledge is studied, it is often restricted to subjective self-report measures of ability (e.g., Duerden and Witt, 2010; Milfont, 2012) or conflated with subjective evaluations of environmental issues as so-called problem awareness (e.g., Bamberg and Möser, 2007). Due to these methodological issues, it is impossible to derive sound conclusions about the influence of actual environmental knowledge on pro-environmental behavior. Toward this end we present an updated, objective environmental knowledge test, and investigate its measurement properties that challenge the distinction of different knowledge types in existing models of environmental competence

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