Measuring Brazilians’ environmental attitudes: A systematic review and empirical analysis of the NEP scale

Abstract

The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale is the most widely used instrument to assess environmental attitudes (EA). However, the validity of its use in developing countries has been overlooked. Considering the importance of Brazil for the future of the environment, we present two complementary studies to examine how the NEP scale has been used in Brazil, its validity to evaluate Brazilians’ EA, and possible ways to improve this instrument. In the first study, we present a systematic review of studies that used the NEP scale (original and revised versions) with Brazilians. In the second study, we conduct an empirical analysis using the revised NEP scale. Results from both studies show that the NEP scale’s factorial structure can be influenced by the items’ positive and negative wording, Brazilians hold medium-high pro-EA, and that the scale presents low internal consistency. Study 1 showed that the scale’s convergent, predictive, and known-group validity differs across studies. In Study 2, the revised NEP scale was significantly associated with connectedness to nature, pro-environmental behavior, gender, and political ideology. These results support its convergent, predictive, and known-group validity. We conclude that the validity of using the NEP scale with Brazilians is questionable and discuss ways of improving this instrument.