Public Attitudes Toward Science and Technology and Concern for the Environment

Abstract

This article was inspired by an absence of systematic research on the interaction between public attitudes toward science and technology (PATSAT) and environmental concern, two crucial sets of beliefs and attitudes that help define the modern era. Combining insights from multiple theoretical perspectives, this study proposes and tests an indirect feedback model, which hypothesizes that PATSAT and concern for the environment reciprocally interact with one another. Using data on a nationally representative sample of the United States extracted from Gallup’s 1992 “Health of the Planet” survey conducted in 1992 and structural equation modeling, this study finds that there is a self-enhancing indirect causal loop that connects an ecological worldview as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale, concern for global environmental problems, and support for science and technology. Belief in the promise of science and technology reduces endorsement of the NEP but is otherwise independent of this causal loop. Yet, reservations about science and technology can be seen largely as a reaction to concern for global environmental problems. Potential implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are offered.