Predicting Protection: Scope of Justice and the Natural World

Abstract

Our attitudes and behavior toward the natural world depend on our scope of justice, the psychological boundary within which considerations of fairness and moral rules govern our conduct. Because the natural world is often excluded from the scope of justice, “depletion” resulting from the economic utilization of land, water, air, and animal and plant “resources” is perceived as acceptable and inevitable. To examine the prediction that perceived similarity, utility, and neediness will indirectly affect environmental protection, mediated by the scope of justice, 432 high school students allocated a resource to a beetle and rated attitudes that delineated their scope of justice. Multiple regression mediation analysis indicated that the scope of justice mediated the effect of neediness and one aspect of similarity, perceived intelligence, on environmental protection. Perceived neediness predicted inclusion and protection but, contrary to expectation, intelligence predicted exclusion from the scope of justice and an unprotective environmental stance. A second aspect of similarity, perceived complexity, predicted inclusion in the scope of justice but not environmental protection. Utility had a strong, direct influence on environmental protection. Implications for justice theory and for policy are discussed.