Understanding psychological and social determinants of pro-environmental behaviours in the context of controversial environmental problems

Abstract

Despite major scientific and technological developments and a growing environmental awareness the magnitude of the environmental decline continues to grow and no consensus on the most adequate responses has been achieved. To understanding this complex scenario, the study of human behaviour and the social and psychological factors influencing the relationship between people and the environment is paramount. A view supported by studies that have shown that the omission of these factors limits the impact of environmental strategies. In the case of climate change, this was acknowledged by the IPCC (2013) in its last report where the need of more psychological, social and cultural research was highlighted. I commenced this study with the strong belief that the failure to develop more effective pro-environmental approaches reflects the lack of understanding or consideration of such psychological and social processes from the scientific community and those who seek to communicate the problem to society. In such a context, I decided to explore how the inclusion of psychological and social considerations can improve people’s responses to controversial environmental problems. Firstly, exploring how people interact with the natural environment, for instance through analyzing the importance attributed to environmental issues and the type of responses favored when addressing these challenges. Secondly, testing strategies that might increase support for pro-environmental actions integrating psychological and social considerations in the particular context where the research is conducted. This dissertation reports a study aimed at exploring the complex interaction between people and the environment from a psychological perspective, considering the social influences and the need for integration between disciplines. Using mixed methods I studied how people perceive and respond to environmental problems, how important they are deemed, the type of actions favoured and the critical factors influencing those processes, including the role of science as driver of pro-environmental changes. People’s perceptions and responses to climate change were the starting point for this analysis, which was then extended to the place attributed to the environment in society. Accordingly, the main goal of this research was exploring psychological processes and social factors involve in the development of pro environmental behaviours, considering individual and social facilitators and constraints, in a frame of growing global environmental awareness in the specific context of Queensland, Australia, in order to improve pro-environmental strategies. This thesis is submitted partly by publications. It includes a review and new analyses of the survey “Attitudes to Climate Change” conducted in Australia, showing strong associations between climate change beliefs and people’s perceptions (levels of concern, importance, experienced effects, harm perceived) and responses to the problem (as demonstrated by pro-environmental behaviour scores), and the strong ideological component involved in the climate change debate in this context. The qualitative research that followed the survey re-analysis is presented through four papers. They identify and characterize the main narratives associated with the climate change debate in this context, clarifying conflicting positions, their internal tensions and the behavioural implications. New psychological insights were produced to understand the internal tension between maintaining non-sustainable practices and expressing environmental concern. The psychological mechanism of dissociation was used to evaluate its heuristic value in the contemporary Australian context not only explaining the type of responses to environmental problems but also how people internally deal with such a conflict. The findings demonstrated an adaptive mechanism that allows people to justify a non-sustainable lifestyle through low impact actions that reduce internal tension, mitigating the impact of cultural contradictory messages (e.g. overconsumption and sustainability) with generally poor environmental outcomes. At the same time this prevalence of low impact, isolated and individual responses were interpreted as an expression of the psychologization of environmental problems, reflecting the rejection or the minimum consideration of the social and especially political component of climate change or any other environmental problem. People’s discourses showed the perception of pro-environmental actions as optional, non-integrated to lifestyle changes, and not associated with community participation or political action. Overall, people perceived minor and individual responsibility rather than a social or cultural change in progress or a collective environmental commitment. The final experiment integrated those findings in the design of alternative frames to overcome the limitations associated with traditional climate change communication. Results showed the influence of place identity in increasing the support for climate change-related actions. The integration of the environment as part of people’s social identity overcomes in-group/out-group separations that are critical in the polarised climate change debate. Moreover, the frame seems to evoke self-transcendent and non-materialistic values that reflect the importance of the environment for people’s wellbeing avoiding the separation environmental-social issues described when explaining the dissociation phenomenon. The place identity frame had a positive impact despite belief type. Using the findings from the previous sections, these psychological and social factors are integrated into a communication model that favors people’s participation in environmental problem-solving using a psychological learning perspective.