THE OVERESTIMATED IMPACT OF SELF-INTEREST AND THE UNDERESTIMATED IMPACT OF JUSTICE MOTIVES

Abstract

1. Introduction Facing the risks of long-lasting and possibly irreparable changes of the earth's eco-systems (Umweltbundesamt 1997, Oskamp 2000), ecological damages and political measures to reduce them are without any doubt one of the most important current political subjects. Most of these ecological damages can be traced back to anthropogenic influences and are caused by activities, which serve desirable aims, such as economic growth, high living standard, or enlargement of wealth (Oskamp 2000, Howard 2000). Changes in relevant behavioral and decisive patterns of individuals (Winter 2000) as well as in industry are necessary to reduce ecological risks. Furthermore, adequate local and global political decision-making seems to be required to promote and regulate these necessary changes. As all political decision-making processes are in need of a broad acceptance within the general population, stricter pro-environmental laws (for example, laws prescribing the reduction of industrial emissions) can only be implemented and upheld when the majority of the voters agree with them. It is--therefore necessary to explore the citizens' view and behavioral attitudes toward environment-relevant decision-making. However, corresponding profound empirical research is often missing. Instead, the politicians rely on intuitive opinions. To reduce this lack of knowledge, social sciences and especially environmental psychology play an important role (Hellbruck and Fischer, 1999, Homburg and Matthies, 1998, Stern 2000). One of the intuitive belief systems concerning people's attitude and behavior in the context of environmental decision-making concerns the overestimated impact of self-interest. The widely spread term in my backyard reflects this general attitude: According to this view of human behavior, people are concerned about environmental problems, but if possible solutions enclose personal renunciations and behavioral changes their willingness to accept them is very restricted. Only when people are directly affected by ecological damages (for example, if an industrial park or a waste incinerating plant is planned to be built near one's home), they become active and seem to be willing to engage in the protection of their environment. But once the directly experienced danger is averted, pro-environmental activities are stopped. Although this view on people's motives might look intuitively convincing, empirical research reveals that this way of looking at things is much over-simplistic. Many people are willing to engage pro-environmentally without expecting and anticipating direct personal benefit (Kals 1996), and even locally acting conservation groups receive their support not only from those who are directly affected (see e.g. Kals and Montada 1997, Opp et al 1984, Platzer 1983). Instead, other motives such as moral reasoning, taking over ecological responsibility or trying to implement environmental justice are motivating people to act pro-environmentally (see Breit and Eckensberger 1998, Eckensberger et al 1992, Kaiser 2001, Kals and Montada 1997, Kals et al 1998, Schahn 1996, Syme et al 1999). There is an increase in researching the underlying motives of people's environmentally relevant behavior on a global level, but only a small minority of empirical studies focuses on local problems (McKenzie-Mohr 2000). Nevertheless, there are good reasons to enforce this local level of analysis: (1) Many political decisions regarding natural environment are made at the local level. In Germany, general laws are given by the federal government, but these laws need to be implemented and fulfilled on a local level. Moreover, many environmental laws leave space for interpretation, which is filled by the local administrations. (2) By focusing on local environmental problems and local decision-making processes, global problems are also diminished in the long run, because increasing local environmental qualities, in sum, lead to enhanced global environmental quality (see Linneweber 1997). …