General Environmental Concern Research Articles

Hotel employees’ intention not to waste food: The role of environmental concern

AbstractDrawing on the theory of planned behavior, the current research examined the effect of moral norms and injunctive norms on hotel employees’ intention not to waste food. Besides, the moderating role of environmental concern was also investigated. Data were collected from 586 food and beverage employees in Egyptian hotels, by quantile regression, which allows us to obtain results for the median individual and for those who are wasteful (below the median). The results show that developing moral and injunctive norms is helpful in reducing food expenditure in the median employee (q = 0.5). However, if the focus is on the most wasteful employee (q < 0.3), the way to reverse this behavior is to develop norms more related to what an employee should or should not do in relation to food waste (injunctive norms) and less related to the feeling of guilt (moral norms). In addition, general environmental concern increases the positive effect of injunctive norms on the intention not to waste food for the wasteful employees, which was not the case for the median employee. These results help to orient information and training policies for employees to reduce food waste in the hotel industry and, from a theoretical point of view, a novel analysis is carried out by comparing employees with different intentions to behave responsibly.

Consumer segments less or more willing to adopt foods with microalgae proteins

The use of microalgae proteins as an alternative protein source in the European food market is becoming increasingly important. Despite their potential, these foods are still relatively unknown to European consumers. Therefore, it is crucial for their successful market introduction to explore consumer awareness, perception and willingness to try them. The objectives of this study were to identify factors shaping willingness to try and consumer segments likely to adopt foods with microalgae proteins. Data were collected via a quantitative online survey (N = 3027) in five European countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary, Spain, and Italy. First, binary logistic regression showed that a flexitarian diet, general health interest, food neophobia, and environmental concern significantly shaped willingness to try foods with microalgae proteins. Second, factor analysis identified two dimensions of consumers’ perceptions about foods with microalgae proteins: credence attributes related and experience attributes related. Third, these perception constructs were used alongside willingness to try in a two-stage segmentation analysis to identify consumer segments willing to adopt foods with microalgae proteins. The analysis yielded four segments, “Enthusiast”, “Cautiously curious”, “Undecided”, and “Uninterested”. Finally, the segments were profiled in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes and perceptions by means of a multinomial logistic regression (n = 2957). Consumers with a higher general health interest, stronger environmental concern, and greater interest in information about foods with microalgae proteins were more likely to be part of segments with a higher willingness to try and more favorable perceptions. Consumers with higher levels of food (technology) neophobia, were more likely to be part of segments with a lower willingness to try and less favorable perceptions. This study has shown that segmentation proves useful to identify and profile consumers who would be less or more likely to adopt foods with microalgae proteins and enables more effective tailoring of marketing and further research efforts.

COVID-related environmental concerns and aspirations for a greener, pandemic-proof future: Prospect for civil-society led change for sustainability

The COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact in terms of lives lost and socio-economic decline but also highlighted issues regarding environmental sustainability. However, few studies have investigated COVID-19-related environmental perceptions. We thus assessed (i) people's concerns about the pandemic's adverse global environmental impacts and (ii) their aspirations for a greener, pandemic-proof, post-COVID future in a representative survey in New Zealand using two specifically designed measures. We found moderate to high COVID-related environmental concern (mean rating = 6.79 on a 10-point scale) and greener post-COVID world aspirations (mean rating = 7.01 on a 10-point scale). Concern and aspirations were unexpectedly evident even among those with low pro-environmental predispositions (e.g. those with low general environmental concern, low recycling frequency, and zero past-5-year environmental actions) – suggesting a pandemic-induced change among the previously unconcerned. Pre-existing pro-environmental dispositions and behaviours were not consistently associated with higher ratings in our measures as hypothesised. Demographic variables had limited influence, while experiences of financial and mental health impacts due to COVID-19 did not affect our measures – suggesting that the pandemic gave rise to new dimensions of environmental concern and aspirations for change that were experienced by most in society. While these concerns and aspirations offer a platform for society-led change, meaningful change can only occur with political will among governments to minimise the present pandemic's environmental impacts, sustain environmentally beneficial practices that occurred during lockdowns, and prevent future zoonotic epidemics and pandemics by steering and supporting environmental investments that lead to changes to travel behaviour, diet, farming practices, and treatment of animals.

Are Humans Part of the Natural World? U.S. Children's and Adults' Concept of Nature and its Relationship to Environmental Concern.

Understanding factors that promote conservation attitudes is essential given ongoing environmental crises and the need for sustainability. Our research adopted various close- and open-ended tasks to explore: the extent to which U.S. urban adults (Study 1) and children (Study 2) have a basic conception of humans as part of nature, cognitive factors that predict more human-inclusive concepts of nature, and, finally, the relationship of their nature concepts and other individual differences to environmental moral concern and biocentric reasoning. General environmental moral concern and biocentric moral reasoning were a focus because both variables have previously been linked to sustainable attitudes. Across studies, adults and children did not tend to categorize humans as part of nature except when induced or disposed to attribute mind or life to nature. Among adults, a human-inclusive nature concept did not predict environmental moral concern or biocentrism. However, the degree of exposure to nature was positively predictive while a cluster of beliefs about humans as intrinsically unique, superior, and influential (human exceptionalism) was negatively predictive. Among children, a basic human-inclusive concept of nature was related to environmental concern but only among children who also tended to reason in ecological terms. These findings have important implications for sustainability efforts: They suggest that environmental moral concern and biocentric attitudes may be enhanced over-development by nature exposure and interventions that enduringly promote human-inclusive concepts of nature and ecological-systems understanding. Such intervention effects might be achieved by selectively inducing individuals to attribute mind and life to non-human natural phenomena and scaffolding accurate mechanistic understanding of evolution and common ancestry, which may also help to inhibit the development and deleterious effects of human exceptionalism.

Eco-label knowledge versus environmental concern toward consumer's switching intentions for electric vehicles: A roadmap toward green innovation and environmental sustainability

The Chinese authorities firmly encourage the use of electric cars to decrease global pollution and fossil fuel consumption (electric vehicles). Nevertheless, research aimed at determining customers’ switching intentions toward electric vehicles and pro-environmental behavior are scarce in the country. The purpose of this study is to fill the knowledge gap by scrutinizing the linkage among general environmental knowledge, environmental concern, eco-label knowledge, eco-label attitude (ATT), switching intentions(SIN), and pro-environmental behavior that might affect customers’ SIN and PEB in the Chinese context. The present research has additionally improved the theoretical foundation of the Theory of Planned Behavior by adding three new aspects in along with the ongoing customers’ motive elements (eco-label knowledge, general environmental knowledge, and ATT). In a survey, 549 electric vehicle users in China were polled and their data were analyzed. The structural equation modeling method is used to assess theories that have been put forth. According to empirical evidence, general environmental knowledge, environmental concern, and eco-label knowledge have a favorable and substantial impact on ATT. In a similar vein, ATT has a positive impact on consumers’ SIN and PEB. The research adds to the field of study on renewable buying behavior and offers crucial and practical future paths for researchers and professionals.

Public Demand for Extraterritorial Environmental and Social Public Goods Provision

AbstractVastly increased transnational business activity in recent decades has been accompanied by controversy over how to cope with its social and environmental impacts. The most prominent policy response thus far consists of international guidelines. We investigate to what extent and why citizens in a high-income country are willing to restrain companies to improve environmental and social conditions in other countries. Exploiting a real-world referendum in Switzerland, we use choice and vignette experiments with a representative sample of voters (N = 3,010) to study public demand for such regulation. Our results show that citizens prefer strict and unilateral rules (with a substantial variation of preferences by general social and environmental concern) while correctly assessing their consequences. Moreover, exposure to international norms increases demand for regulation. These findings highlight that democratic accountability can be a mechanism that motivates states to contribute to collective goods even if not in their economic interest and that awareness of relevant international norms among citizens can enhance this mechanism.

Awareness days and environmental attitudes: The case of the “Earth Hour”

Environmental awareness campaigns disseminate information about the state of the natural environment, aiming to affect public attitudes and encourage pro-environmental behavior. I test the influence of awareness days on the general public's environmental and climate change attitudes and concern, focusing on the case of the Earth Hour, an international campaign organized annually by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The Earth Hour highlights environmental consequences of human activity and encourages sustainable behavior, culminating with a call to mass action. To assess the Earth Hour's effect, I use longitudinal data from Germany and the UK, exploiting the orthogonality of the Earth Hour observance to the timing of data collection, to estimate models comparing individual attitudes and concern before and after the event. I find no evidence of an Earth Hour effect on environmental and climate change attitudes and concern. Results suggest that more research is needed to assess the influence of environmental advocacy campaigns and awareness days on the general public.

Ascendant Public Opinion

Abstract Here we document an under-studied but important phenomenon that we call ascendant public opinion, which emerges when a new concern is framed as an instance of a broader issue and gains ascendancy over that issue in the public’s mind. We focus on the ever-increasing role climate change has come to play over the past three decades in shaping how Americans think about broader environmental concerns. We show that news coverage of the environment has focused increasingly on climate change over time, while climate change concurrently has come to dominate all other environmental problems in the strength of its association with general environmental concern in opinion surveys. Panel studies provide evidence that the growing correlation between attitudes on climate change and the environment is predominantly due to the impact of the former on the latter. These developments have been consequential: we estimate that Americans’ level of concern about the environment is now both more elevated and more polarized along party lines than if climate change did not occupy its dominant place on the environmental agenda. Climate change is likely just one example of how ascendant public opinion can have important consequences for politics and policy.

Ecolabeled seafood and sustainable consumption in the Canadian context: issues and insights from a survey of seafood consumers

The concept of sustainable consumption is a much debated practice that has been seen as an outcome of the emergence of ecological citizenship—a concept that brings together the citizen and the environment in a framework that is underlined by social justice considerations and incorporates a vision of citizenship that involves both the private sphere and the public sphere of human activity. This study examines Canadian consumer awareness and uptake of certified sustainable seafood. We introduce the concepts ecological citizenship and sustainable consumption as a way of framing our research. Seafood ecolabels may be a valuable tool in translating general environmental concern about the marine environment into more sustainable fisheries practices. We conducted an on-site consumer survey in the Greater Toronto Area and a nearby city. Our findings showed that in contrast to high levels of awareness of the importance of the marine environment and the sustainability of seafood, consumers had a limited understanding about the meaning of sustainability in the case of seafood, and little knowledge about actual ecolabels found in the Canadian marketplace. Attitudes towards the marine environment and sustainable seafood, understanding of the meaning of seafood sustainability, and purchasing behaviors of sustainable seafood were significantly different by some socio-demographic characteristics. Positive attitudes towards the marine environment and sustainable seafood and better understanding of seafood sustainability were significantly associated with the increased purchasing of ecolabeled seafood. Lack of understanding of ecolabels, limited information about product sustainability, and lack of in-store guidance were identified as key barriers to purchasing ecolabeled seafood products.

Sustainable product disposal: Consumer redistributing behaviors versus hoarding and throwing away

AbstractBusiness strategies involving sustainable product disposal have focused mostly on technical aspects but neglected to adequately incorporate the nature of consumers' behavior. The current study addresses this void. We study consumer product disposal behavior and subsequently offer insights to businesses on how to incorporate consumer input into their strategic decision making in the light of opportunities to mitigate environmental impacts. Consumers' redistributing of unwanted but still useful products to others by reselling, passing along, or donating, rather than hoarding or throwing away, contributes to product lifetime extension and waste management. We study factors influencing product redistribution and explore profile of consumers who engage in various disposal behaviors. Findings from two online surveys, on mobile phones and sunglasses, reveal that specific waste attitudes, that is, waste minimization and waste aversion, rather than general environmental concern, are key determinants of product redistribution choice. Product cost is positively related to reselling and giving behaviors. Furthermore, product quality and product self‐image congruency significantly reduce the odds of throwing away. The method of product redistribution is also influenced by consumers' demographic characteristics including age, education level, and income. This paper advances extant literature on product disposal from the perspective of the consumer and provides input into development of business strategies that incorporate consumers' sustainable disposal behaviors. We also offer input to policy makers on how to curb or delay waste and pollution.

Moral Foundations and Voluntary Public Good Provision: The Case of Climate Change

Economic theory has invoked moral motivation as an explanation for the voluntary provision of public goods but is vague with regard to the specific moral concerns involved. Focusing on climate change as a case study, this paper relates morally-motivated public good provision to the six moral foundations (MFs) identified by moral psychologists: Care, Fairness and Liberty (individual-focused), and Loyalty, Authority and Sanctity (group-focused). Using data from the European Social Surveys it is found that using the MFs in addition to standard explanatory variables improves the explanation of climate-friendly behaviors and endorsement of climate-friendly regulations. While the Fairness and Care foundations are strong and robust predictors of the dependent variables, the Loyalty foundation contributes positively only when neglecting the nature of climate change mitigation as a global public good. More generally, in contrast to the individual-focused MFs (that apply to all individuals), the group-focused MFs are of little direct relevance to climate change mitigation – consistent with the benefit from mitigation extending beyond the in-group (family, neighborhood, region, or nation) to which these MFs refer. Group-focused MFs are only of indirect relevance as their endorsement fosters general environmental concern.

Values and ascribed responsibility to predict consumers' attitude and concern towards green hotel visit intention

The current study aims to predict consumer's green hotel visit intention by measuring the effect of values (biospheric, egoistic and altruistic) and ascribed responsibility on attitude towards the green hotel and general environmental concern in India. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 311 consumers' purposively and analyzed by using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). Results reveal that biospheric values rank high in influencing attitude whereas consumers with higher altruistic values portray the higher environmental concern. Environmental concern was appeared as a significant contributor in shaping of Indian consumers' attitude towards green hotels. Further, consumers with a higher level of ascribed responsibility feel that they are mutually responsible for environmental degradation, thus forming a positive attitude towards green hotels in order to form green hotel visit intention. Further, attitude towards green hotel appears to be the strongest predictor of green hotel visit intention than general environmental concern.

A social trap for the climate? Collective action, trust and climate change risk perception in 35 countries

Abstract Climate change presents a global problem that requires a collective, coordinated response to reduce the rate of greenhouse gases currently emitted. But, even in the face of these serious growing dangers, behavioral and policy responses have been rather muted. A growing literature has documented cross-national differences in climate change attitudes and related scholarship has analyzed general environmental concern across nations. Yet there are several holes in our knowledge. In this manuscript, we consider the role of trust, risk perceptions and investigate the possibility of a “social trap” (Rothstein, 2005) whereby a lack of trust blunts the effect of risk perceptions on public willingness to engage in behaviors or support policies to address climate change. Using between- and within- random effects models coupled with survey data from 35 countries, we find that, at the individual level, trust and risk perceptions are generally positively associated with ameliorative behavior and policy support. Results for a contextual effect of trust and risk perceptions are more mixed, and we find only slim support for an interactive relationship between trust and risk perceptions.

Does schooling foster environmental values and action? A cross-national study of priorities and behaviors

Steering the course of climate change will require coordination and collective action between nations, which are directed not only by the interests of their political leaders and elites but also the values of citizens. Previous studies have investigated macro-level factors that help explain international differences in general environmental concern. The present article draws on the sixth wave of the World Values Survey, which offers researchers an even starker outcome measure than general concern: whether or not environmental protection should be prioritized over economic growth. Here we report on WVS data from 50 countries to show the individual-level and national-level factors associated with respondents’ prioritizations of the environment.

Communicating transportation carbon dioxide emissions information: Does gender impact behavioral response?

General concern and knowledge on climate change have been increasingly studied over the past decades. Gender differences have been found for general environmental concern and knowledge, but mixed findings exist with respect to climate change. In transportation, research has examined potential relations between environmental attitudes and transportation behavior, with mixed findings as well. Recently, the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions information to influence choice has been tested with women being found more willing to pay to reduce their personal impacts, suggesting that women are either more willing to change or that their response to information on climate change is stronger. However, those studies used CO2 mass and studies that examined understanding of CO2 information as a mass have found that people struggle to understand it. If concern and knowledge about climate change differ amongst individuals, then, according to theories such as the Transtheoretical Model, the type of information used to motivate choices is likely important. Using a unique data set (n=236) it is possible to take a first look at how gender might affect concern, knowledge, and action in terms of transportation and climate change. Further, it is also possible to examine behavioral responses to transportation climate change information. Finally, an empirical analysis is conducted of the effect of how the information is presented might differ by gender. Thus, this work aims to investigate whether gender differences might contribute to the explanation of individual behavioral responses (from concern to action) in a transportation climate change context.

Barriers to Environmental Sacrifice: The Interaction of Free Rider Fears with Education, Income, and Ideology

Sacrificing individual material interests for collective benefits involves trust that others will act in good faith. Inherent to situations concerning collective goods is the problem of the free rider that plagues collective action: the individual who maximizes their short-term interests at the cost of the greater good. Prior research in environmental sociology has identified various social structural factors predicting pro-environmental behavior and concern, while research on social dilemmas has explored the role of trust in determining cooperation in situations regarding collective goods. This research draws upon these areas of scholarship to examine the interaction between free rider fears with education, income, and ideology in determining the willingness of Americans to sacrifice individual interest for environmental protection through an analysis of 2010 General Social Survey data. Findings help differentiate the engagement of pro-environmental behavior from general environmental concern, with the fear of free riders particularly impacting the highly educated and ideological liberals.

Why do farmers join Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes? An Assessment of PES water scheme participation in Brazil

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) have become a popular instrument in the last decades and this growing trend is also clearly evident in Brazil. However, challenges related to implementation of these schemes are often underestimated. Any guarantee that a payment will secure or provide such a service is subject not only to underlying ecological uncertainties but also to those entailed by the kinds of social interaction that are inherent to policy implementation. It is argued that the objectives proposed with these instruments can only be attained by ensuring a wide participation of land users. This article advances this topic reporting and discussing evidence on farmer's reasons to participate in three PES-water schemes in Brazil using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Results indicate that the diverging opinions regarding how ecosystem services are generated or secured, decentralized governance structures and the involvement of representative bodies in scheme design and implementation are important factors to consider. Furthermore, access to information and general environmental concern were found to be important variables to explain the propensity of farmers to participate. This generates serious policy implications for developing consistent communication and consultation strategies with scheme beneficiaries.

The effect of economic affluence and ecological degradation on Chinese environmental concern: a multilevel analysis

Despite being the world’s second largest economy and the single largest producer of carbon dioxide, few studies have analyzed the nature of the Chinese general public’s concern over environmental quality. This paper engages in the longstanding discussion of the postmaterialist values theory and the objective problems subjective values (OPSV) theory that might explain that concern. Specifically, I assess the impacts of economic affluence and ecologic degradation on the likelihood of environmental concern for over 3,000 individuals across 26 provinces in China. I initially use principal component factor analysis to identify three distinct dimensions of general environmental concern. I then employ correlation and regression methods to analyze the associations between these aspects of environmental concern and potential explanatory variables. Individual-level analysis and provincial-level analysis indicate that ecological degradation and economic affluence influence one’s overall environmental concern. By using empirical evidence in China to test theoretical frameworks that were originally proposed in the Western world, this paper contributes to the ongoing study of environmental concern. In addition, the formation of public environmental concern can serve as an important prerequisite to initiate collective protests and promote policy changes to improve the deteriorating environment.

Consumers' evaluations of ecological packaging – Rational and emotional approaches

Ecological marketing claims have been criticized for confusing or misleading buyers, leading to calls for more rationality in promoting and evaluating ‘green’ products. However, emotions are important drivers influencing pro-environmental purchase decisions. This study investigates consumers' emotional and rational evaluations of pro-environmental packaging. A conceptual model incorporates individuals' general environmental concerns, their rational beliefs about environmental effects of product consumption and emotions evoked. Hypotheses are tested with 312 Norwegian consumers who evaluated a beverage container incorporating organic material. Purchase intention was significantly influenced by general environmental concern, but not by rational evaluations of benefits. Rational evaluations had differing effects on positive and negative emotions. Both positive and negative emotions had significant direct effects on purchase intention. This paper contributes to evidence that emotions rather than rational evaluations are key drivers for changing pro-environmental purchase behavior and adds new knowledge about the role of negative emotions evoked by pro-environmental packaging.

Fate of para-toluenesulfonamide (p-TSA) in groundwater under anoxic conditions: modelling results from a field site in Berlin (Germany)

This article reports on a field modelling study to investigate the processes controlling the plume evolution of para-toluenesulfonamide (p-TSA) in anoxic groundwater in Berlin, Germany. The organic contaminant p-TSA originates from the industrial production process of plasticisers, pesticides, antiseptics and drugs and is of general environmental concern for urban water management. Previous laboratory studies revealed that p-TSA is degradable under oxic conditions, whereas it appears to behave conservatively in the absence of oxygen (O2). p-TSA is ubiquitous in the aquatic environment of Berlin and present in high concentrations (up to 38μgL(-1)) in an anoxic aquifer downgradient of a former sewage farm, where groundwater is partly used for drinking water production. To obtain refined knowledge of p-TSA transport and degradation in an aquifer at field scale, measurements of p-TSA were carried out at 11 locations (at different depths) between 2005 and 2010. Comparison of chloride (Cl(-)) and p-TSA field data showed that p-TSA has been retarded in the same manner as Cl(-). To verify the transport behaviour under field conditions, a two-dimensional transport model was setup, applying the dual-domain mass transfer approach in the model sector corresponding to an area of high aquifer heterogeneity. The distribution of Cl(-) and p-TSA concentrations from the site was reproduced well, confirming that both compounds behave conservatively and are subjected to retardation due to back diffusion from water stagnant zones. Predictive simulations showed that without any remediation measures, the groundwater quality near the drinking water well galleries will be affected by high p-TSA loads for about a hundred years.