Pro-environmental Attitudes Research Articles

Inherited Patience and the Taste for Environmental Quality

Environmental-quality and environmental-protection actions vary worldwide. Investing in environmental quality often involves intertemporal trade-offs, with present costs and future rewards. A growing body of literature finds that patience, a measure of time preference, is positively associated with pro-environmental policies, attitudes, and behaviors. However, much of this work relies on contemporaneous measures of patience that may be jointly determined with environmental attitudes, and thus may give rise to spurious correlations, calling the validity of these results into question. This paper contributes to the discussion on the determinants of environmental quality by addressing this methodological concern. We propose an individual measure of patience in the form of inherited cultural values, which is derived from information on the countries of origin of an individual’s parents. We argue that this inherited-patience measure is plausibly an exogenous event in an individual’s life. Using this measure, we find a strong, positive relationship between inherited patience and concern for the environment. Our results are robust to the inclusion of variables reflecting an individual’s demographic and socioeconomic status, religious identity, trust, political ideology, and location, as well as period and country fixed effects.

Media Use, Environmental Mediators, and Pro-environmental Behaviors across and within Countries

ABSTRACT This study develops a model of direct association of exposure to environmental media content, and indirect association through environmental attitude and environmental efficacy, with pro-environmental behaviors. It also considers secondary media roles of exposure to general news media and involvement in mediated civic activism. The model and hypotheses are tested through Hayes Process mediation models, using secondary, cross-sectional survey data from 11,000 respondents across 11 countries. The model is well-supported overall and within countries, and the secondary media variables have generally consistent effects within countries. Socio-demographic covariates have varying relationships with environmental attitude, environmental efficacy, and pro-environmental behaviors, overall, and within countries. In line with social cognitive theory, these results suggest that media use related to environmental issues does not have to raise individuals’ pro-environmental attitude or efficacy (though it does) to increase engagement in pro-environmental behavior.

Increasing awareness of climate change with immersive virtual reality

Previous research has shown that immersive virtual reality (VR) is a suitable tool for visualizing the consequences of climate change. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether visualization in VR has a stronger influence on climate change awareness and environmental attitudes compared to traditional media. Furthermore, it was examined how realistic a VR experience has to be in order to have an effect. The VR experience consisted of a model of the Aletsch glacier (Switzerland) melting over the course of 220 years. Explicit measurements (new environmental paradigm NEP, climate change scepticism, and nature relatedness) and an implicit measurement (implicit association test) were collected before and after the VR intervention and compared to three different non-VR control conditions (video, images with text, and plain text). In addition, the VR environment was varied in terms of degrees of realism and sophistication (3 conditions: abstract visualization, less sophisticated realistic visualization, more sophisticated realistic visualization). The six experimental conditions (3 VR conditions, three control conditions) were modeled as mixed effects, with VR versus control used as a fixed effect in a mixed effects modeling framework. Across all six conditions, environmental awareness (NEP) was higher after the participants (N = 142) had been confronted with the glacier melting, while no differences were found for nature relatedness and climate change scepticism before and after the interventions. There was no significant difference between VR and control conditions for any of the four measurements. Nevertheless, contrast analyses revealed that environmental awareness increased significantly only for the VR but not for the control conditions, suggesting that VR is more likely to lead to attitude change. Our results show that exposure to VR environments successfully increased environmental awareness independently of the design choices, suggesting that even abstract and less sophisticated VR environment designs may be sufficient to increase pro-environmental attitudes.

From Greening to Meaning: Understanding the Content of Catholic Attitudes towards the Ecological Crisis

The contribution of faith organisations to public discourse on the ecological crisis appears to be intensifying, leading some to conjecture that Christians are becoming more concerned with the environment. In social science research, this observation is generally understood as the greening of religion hypothesis. Empirical studies have tried to confirm this hypothesis for over three decades, but have generally returned the same, negative results. In this paper, we argue that the ill-fated preoccupation with quantifying the extent of Christian environmental concern has overlooked the more substantive investigation of how environmentally engaged Christians think, feel about, and perform the relationship between Christianity and the environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate environmental attitudes within a parish community. We surveyed 254 parishioners in the Catholic diocese of Salford, U.K. We used cluster analysis to identify groups of parishioners within the sample who exhibited especially pro-environmental attitudes. We then conducted a regression analysis on the relationships between the individuals’ beliefs and the number of pro-environmental actions they performed. We found that, on the one hand, belief in the importance of caring for the environment to the Catholic faith does not result in parishioners being more ecologically active, consistent with existing findings in the literature. On the other hand, however, the importance of care for the environment to one’s own religious practice results in parishioners being more ecologically active, consistent with the greening of religion hypothesis. These results point to the need for a much subtler analysis that considers the precise meaning of faith for Christian parishioners. We conclude with recommendations for further investigation of the greening of religion that can generate more detailed hypotheses from the greater level of detail afforded by this study.

Examining Indian consumer pro-environment purchase intention of electric vehicles: Perspective of stimulus-organism-response

This paper examines the antecedents of Indian consumers' pro-environment purchase intention of electric vehicles utilizing the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory. The conceptualized model is analyzed by collecting 1143 responses and validated using structural equation modelling. The results show that pro-environment responsibility significantly impacts the pro-environment value and pro-environment attitude; the pro-environment value has a significant impact on the pro-environment attitude; pro-environment value and pro-environment attitude have a significant impact on the pro-environment purchase intention of electric vehicles. Additionally, the results depict that a pro-environment attitude mediates the relationship between pro-environment value and pro-environment purchase intention of electric vehicles. Finally, this paper contributes to theory in the adoption literature by proposing an alternate perspective considering “value-attitude-behavior” linkages, particularly pro-environment behavior. The study contributes to practitioners' space.

The one health approach: Main psychological components

Environmental issues currently represent one of the most significant social and scientific challenges. With the exacerbation of the climate crisis, researchers are reconsidering the human-nature connection to gain a better understanding of this relationship and explore solutions to environmental issues. To address these challenges, the One Health approach, through its holistic view, proposes a dynamic model of health and well-being that promotes the integration of human, animal and environmental health. In recent years, this approach has also gained relevance in psychology as it is becoming increasingly urgent to identify strategies and promote behaviour that can protect the natural environment. The present theoretical reflection aims to investigate the psychological mechanisms and processes that support the emergence of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour. These are the result of a process involving not only the rational side (e.g. beliefs and values), but also the emotional and empathic side towards nature. Several psychological dimensions implicated in the adoption of proenvironmental behaviour have been identified, including empathy, gratitude towards nature and personality traits. Finally, training and educational programmes based on nudging principles that encourage individuals to reflect on their decisions towards the natural environment and the adoption of proenvironmental behaviour and attitudes were considered.

Trait anxiety predicts pro-environmental values and climate change action

Individuals vary greatly with respect to how much value they place on the environment. These differences, in turn, are associated with a host of pro-environmental behaviors, including the willingness to engage in actions intended to mitigate the impacts of climate change. One factor that may associate with differences in pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes is personality; however, the literature is decidedly mixed. Thus, the primary purpose of the current exploratory study was to examine whether personality, as assessed by the HEXACO-PI, is associated with variations in pro-environmental values and climate change actions. Participants completed an online questionnaire that assessed a) personality (as measure by the HEXACO-PI), b) environmental values (as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm; NEP), and c) whether they had changed their actions due to climate change considerations and the degree to which climate change had impacted their actions. Gender, political affiliation, and the anxiety sub-facet of emotionality emerged as the strongest predictors of pro-environmental attitudes. In addition, the strongest predictors of climate change action were the anxiety sub-facet of emotionality, inquisitiveness, and sociability. Interestingly, trait anxiety moderated the relationship between environmental values and climate action, such that individuals higher in both environmental values and the anxiety sub-facet of emotionality were more likely to engage in climate actions.

Climate Fiction: A Promising Way of Communicating Climate Change with the General Public

Since anthropogenic climate change was first noticed in the late 1980s, despite scientists’ consensus on its urgency and seriousness with strong evidence, climate risk is still a tough issue for the public to engage with due to its ambiguity, invisibility and uncertainty. This article reviews the emotive and empathetic role of climate fiction (cli-fi) in climate change communication, using the precautionary principle of relevance to sustainable development to discuss how cli-fi has influenced the way people feel and think about climate change and further foster pro-environmental attitudes and opinions. Through discussing the effectiveness of cli-fi as a communication tool, I argue that cli-fi allows readers to visualise the implications of climate change on themselves and triggers their empathetic and emotional responses, especially negative emotions. Those emotions, on the one hand, could arouse a wider and deeper climate consciousness by inspiring audiences to consider previously unnoticed subjects; on the other hand, could facilitate affective engagement and the perceived need for action.

A Study on the Impact of Ideological and Political Education of Ecological Civilization on College Students' Willingness to Act Pro-Environment: Evidence from China.

The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of ideological and political education with regards to ecological civilization on college students' pro-environment attitudes. Based on the survey data of 1622 college students, a series of econometric models are built to understand and test the impact of ideological and political education on students' pro-environment willingness. The results show that the ideological and political education of ecological civilization can effectively promote the environmental will of college students; the accumulation of environmental knowledge, ecological concern, and ecological reflection are the important mediums for the ideological and political education of ecological civilization; and the medium effect of ecological reflection is the strongest. In addition, this study also indicates that the pro-environment willingness of college students and their professional categories, whether to join the eco-environmental association, and other factors have a significant correlation. Therefore, this study reveals the current impact of ecological civilization education and the role of the mechanism for college educators and policymakers to promote the protection of the ecological environment, which provides an important reference.

The Important Role of Environmental Justice in Supporting Green Schools

The world's awareness of the importance of protecting the earth's environment is proof that nature is seen as an inseparable part of humankind. For this reason, the application of green schools is increasingly being carried out as evidence of the achievement of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This research is related to the success of Al-Fajar Bekasi Islamic High School in implementing environmental justice in supporting green schools. This research method uses a qualitative phenomenological approach. The research findings show that the environmental justice approach plays a full role in supporting the creation of green schools for the long term. Student behavior that is in accordance with environmental justice, namely equality between humans will support that nature is an important component. Thus, the urgency of a pro-environmental attitude combined with adaptation to environmental justice for sustainable development must be instilled from an early age in public and private schools, so that later the younger generation will become the group that determines the success of environmental development in Indonesia with optimal and credible knowledge, attitudes and skills.

Gender difference in biospheric values and opinions on nature management actions: The case of seal watching in Iceland

Gender differences in biospheric value orientation and opinions on wildlife management have the potential to be used as a management tool in wildlife watching settings. In this research note, we build on a dataset from Chauvat et al. (2021) to investigate gender differences in biospheric value orientation and opinions on seal watching management of visitors at seal watching sites post hoc. Questionnaires (n = 597) were collected at three sites in Northwest Iceland. It was found that when genders were compared, women had stronger biospheric value orientations, were more aware of potential anthropogenic impacts on seals, believed to a higher extent that regulations were useful in terms of decreasing impact, and were more positive towards most management actions suggested in the questionnaire. We argue that further understanding of the gender dynamics regarding pro-environmental attitudes may be a valuable element in the context of sustainable wildlife tourism management.

LAVA-Lobos: Raising Environmental Awareness through Community Science in the Galápagos Islands

Community science involves scientists and community members co-creating and co-executing scientific research. Given their deep engagement of non-scientists, these projects have great potential to improve their participants’ scientific knowledge and pro-environmental attitudes, as well as to collect first-order data on issues of local and scientific concern. To investigate this potential, we implemented a community science project to monitor an endemic species of sea lion in the Galápagos Islands and empirically assessed its impacts on the community scientists (local high-school students). We discovered that our community scientists increased their understanding of the nature of science, knowledge of sea lion biology, and intrinsic motivations for conservation as a result of their participation. These results provide empirical evidence that community science initiatives can be effective tools for helping community members to increase both their scientific knowledge and their environmental awareness.

The Relationship Between Future Perception Tendency and Sustainable Consumption Behaviors

As a result of studies examining individual differences in temporal perception and the relationship of these differences with sustainable behavior, it has been observed that long-term perception predicts participation in pro-environmental attitudes and sustainable consumption behaviors. In this study, the relationship between the differences in future perceptions and sustainable consumption behaviors was examined in terms of individuals residing in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). In order to test this relationship, “Sustainable Consumption Behaviors” scale and CFC (Consideration of Future Consequences) scale were used. Since the normality assumption of the data could not be achieved, it was decided to use nonparametric tests. As a result of the analysis of the data, collected from 319 participants who were accessed online, it was found a statistically significant but a weak relationship between "Perception Tendency of the Future" and "Sustainable Consumption Behaviors". While no statistically significant relationship was found between the "Short-Term Thinking Tendency" subscale and "Sustainable Consumption Behaviors", it was found that the "Long-Term Thinking Tendency" subscale had a statistically significant relationship with "Sustainable Consumption Behaviors". In line with this finding, it was determined that those who tend to think long-term do their consumption behavior by taking sustainability into account compared to the group who thinks short-term. In addition, it has been determined that there is a noticeable difference between those who do sports and those who never do, and in this context, those who do sports differ significantly in terms of environmental awareness, unnecessary purchasing and sustainable consumption behaviors compared to those who do not do sports. It has been determined that the importance given to healthy eating is significantly related to long-term thinking, similarly, as the importance given to healthy nutrition increases, consumption becomes more environmentally friendly, and as the importance given to healthy nutrition decreases, consumption behavior that takes into account sustainability is abandoned.

New Ecological Paradigm and third culture kids: Multicultural identity configurations, global mindset and values as predictors of environmental worldviews.

Ecological degradation threatens human survival, increasing the need to understand factors related to pro-environmental attitudes and worldviews. In a globalising world, new paradigms arise as central to social sciences, including the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the multicultural identities of individuals raised between the cultures, third culture kids (TCKs). NEP is an ecocentric perspective that stresses the interdependence between nature and humans, opposite to anthropocentrism. TCKs' exposure to cultural diversity during developmental years might support global issues engagement and ecocentric worldviews. The present study focused on non-Western TCKs (N=399; mean age 21 years), aiming to explore whether multicultural identity configurations (integration, categorisation, compartmentalisation), values dimensions (self-transcendence, openness and conservation) and global mindset predicted ecocentric and anthropocentric worldviews. The results demonstrated that TCKs were ecocentrically inclined. The path model revealed that ecocentrism could be directly positively predicted by integrated multicultural identity, self-transcendence and a global mindset. Anthropocentrism was predicted by multicultural identity categorisation and conservation values. Also, values of self-transcendence and openness buffered the impact of compartmentalisation and categorisation on ecocentrism and anthropocentrism. This study set innovative directions in multiculturism and environmentalism discourse through understanding a multicultural identity's relationships with pro-environmental attitudes.

Between Lynn White and Big Gods – religious sources of pro-environmental attitudes – cross-cultural test of Lynn White's Hypothesis

This study examines the connection between religious beliefs and pro-environmental attitudes using data from three waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) conducted in 1989, 1999, and 2009. The findings reveal a paradoxical relationship between religion and environmental attitudes. While respondents who identified with a specific religious denomination tended to have lower pro-environmental attitudes than those without a religious affiliation, individuals who placed high personal importance on their religiosity and participated in religious practices were more likely to have pro-environmental attitudes. This relationship was moderated by the religious denomination. However, the effects were minimal, explaining only 0.4% of the variance, and were only detected due to the analysis's high statistical power.

Pro-Environment Attitudes and Worker Commuting Behavior

Pro-Environment Attitudes and Worker Commuting Behavior

The Role of Labour Unions in a Just Transition: Insights From the Workers

Climate change will bring about changes in production and consumption patterns globally. Workers largely understand that a transformation of their industry and organisation is impending, but there is uncertainty about what this transition will look like. However, ensuring meaningful employment amidst mitigation to address climate change within organisations, can be aligned to address workers’ concerns. Enhancing existing livelihoods and income is fundamental to this transition. A strategy for changes that are fair and equitable for all stakeholders, or what is termed as “Just Transition,” is necessary to ensure that the future sustainable economy provides new and meaningful green jobs for workers. This study reports findings from a survey with 1,000 Singaporean and Permanent Resident workers in Singapore investigating their perceptions, attitudes, and priorities in a Just Transition. First, despite the ongoing push for sustainability, workers’ top concerns today and in the coming decade are the cost of living and livelihoods. Climate change is of less concern. Even among workers with strong pro-environmental attitudes, cost of living, livelihoods, and an ageing workforce were greater priorities. Second, workers are seeking certainty of what Just Transition looks like and reassurances that job opportunities will be available. These hint at existing uncertainties among workers about jobs, livelihood, and impending changes that will take place as part of this transition. Third, workers see a role played by unions in Just Transition and this role is multifaceted and builds on existing advocacy, negotiation, and partnership activities.

Natural disasters and preferences for the environment: Evidence from the impressionable years

Can preferences for the environment be shaped? In line with the theories of social psychology, we show that natural disasters experienced during early adulthood induce pro-environmental attitudes. We support our findings by exploiting yearly natural disaster variation both within the US and across a sample of 102 countries whose citizens experience disasters at different points in time.

The phenomenon and mechanism of intergenerational transmission of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors

The phenomenon and mechanism of intergenerational transmission of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors

"Everyone Can Help the Earth": Environmental Dispositions of Elementary Students in Los Angeles, California's South Bay

Abstract: Early environmental exposures profoundly affect children's development of pro-environmental attitudes, yet the perspectives of children from historically environmentally disadvantaged neighborhoods are rarely heard. This study sought to understand children's environmental dispositions in the South Bay Region of Los Angeles County, California. We held focus groups with 109 third- and fourth-grade students across four public elementary schools. The young students in the South Bay conveyed largely positive eco-perspectives and suggested a lifelong interest in environmental sustainability. Placing their responses within the school's environmental context suggests that unfavorable local conditions do not hinder the development of eco-affinity or eco-awareness.