Lecture 2: Environmental Attitudes & Behaviour

Question 1

What are the 2 contrasting ways of understanding world view?

Answer 1

Anthropocentrism = extrinsic value
Ecocentrism = intrinsic value

Question 2

What is anthropocentrism?

Answer 2

Emphasizes the function of nature of humans i.e., our wants and needs (extrinsic value)
e.g., We came to dominate nature & do what we want with it

Question 3

What is ecocentrism?

Answer 3

Nature has value in its own right, independent of humans (intrinsic value)
E.g., We need to protect nature

Question 4

What is the dominant social paradigm?

Answer 4

Humans control & manage the environment, natural resources are infinite, industrial growth is limited to
There was a shift from this paradigm to the new environmental paradigm from the 1970s onwards

Question 5

What is the new environmental paradigm?

Answer 5

The NSP values environmental protection, balancing the human activity with the needs of nature
Claim it’s important to take into account the environment & resources are not fully at our dispense

Question 6

What is the New Environmental Paradigm Scale (NEP)?

Answer 6

Developed by Riley Dunlap (1970)
The scale is supposed to reflect either eccocentric or anthropocentrism view
It’s a way of measuring & conceptualizing people’s perspective’s

Question 7

What is the NEP scale? Part 2

Answer 7

World’s most widely used measure of environmental concern
E.G Xue et al., 2018: Used in a wide range of contexts; used in China to predict global warming risk perception behaviour

Question 8

What did Capstick et al., (2016) find in UK predicting concern about ocean acidification

Answer 8

Found it was one of the strongest predictors of whether people were concerned about ocean acidification

Question 9

What are some criticism of the NEP scale?

Answer 9

-Many of the items may just measure environmental concern
-Issues with SR
-Using a scale to predict environmental concern could be problematic (circular reasoning)
-Construct validity is unclear
-Cross-cultural validity is unclear - is it just used in Western countries? (WEIRD)
-It may be outdated as it was made in the 1970s so it might need updating (Bernstein & Szuster, 2018)

Question 10

What did Keseblr find about growing disconnection with nature?

Answer 10

Tracked prevalence of nature related words in popular song lyrics over time, this has been shown to decrease
But, from 2018 onwards there’s a renewed interest in topics like the climate emergency & growth in protest movements

Question 11

How was the importance of the environment changed over time?

Answer 11

In 2010: Environmental concern was low in ppl’s priorities
But after 2010, things began to change
-YouGov: asked ppl which issues are the most important
-Pre-Pandemic: 1/3 of ppl claimed it be a top priority
-Dropped during the Pandemic & increased after this

Question 12

What is pro-environmental behaviour?

Answer 12

Any behaviour that is positive for the environment
E.g., Cycling as pro-environmental behaviour - depends on what roads you live near

Question 13

How can we distinguish PEB?

Answer 13

Intent vs impact
Choice vs limits to action
Private vs public sphere
Frequent vs infrequent

Question 14

What is public sphere vs private sphere?

Answer 14

▪ Private Sphere: Behaviour which has direct impact on environment
▪ Public Sphere: Behaviour has indirect consequence on environment

Question 15

What is intent-oriented vs impact oriented environmental behaviour?

Answer 15

Intent oriented behaviour: Behaviour defined by it’s motivation to do good for the environment
Impact oriented behaviour: Behaviour defined by it’s impact on the environment

Question 16

Study on intent vs impact oriented? (Lassen, 2010)

Answer 16

Lassen (2010)= Looked at professionals = environmental perspective and analysis of air travel
Found that people are intent oriented NOT impact oriented

Question 17

Impact vs intent oriented study (Whitmarsh and O’Neill, 2010)

Answer 17

Found that people spend a lot of time doing things with little impact

E.g
Recycling = 70.7%
Cutting down car use = 33.3%
Eating less meat = 8.7%

Question 18

Impact vs intent oriented study (Whitmarsh et al., 2019)

Answer 18

Study in UK and Brazil
Low impact behaviours e.g turn off lights, avoid littering, recycling = common place
Much less common = reducing meat consumption, encouraging others to stop, avoid buying things

Question 19

What are the motivations behind behaviours? Whitmarsh (2009)

Answer 19

Diff behaviours = diff motivations
Lightbulbs = save money
Walking / cycling = health / convenience

Question 20

What are peoples perceptions of PEB impacts? (Wynes et al., 2020)

Answer 20

When asked: what do you think is the most effective?
Transport, reduce GHG

Very uncommon = diet, green energy, efficient appliances

Question 21

What are peoples perceptions of PEB impacts compared to objective ratings? (Wynes et al., 2020)

Answer 21

Categorised into high, moderate, low impact
In line = switch from SUV to public transport (useful and impactful)
Public thought that switching to plastic bags had more impact than they did
Vegan diet = researchers rated as a lot more impactful than public

Question 22

What is the difference between private-sphere and public-sphere (activist and non activist)?

Answer 22

Stern (2000) distinguished between the 2. Example -
Private sphere = buying organic food
Public sphere:
Activist = Attend a protest
Non activist = Voting

Question 23

What needs to happen for a positive shift in PEB?

Answer 23

Requires a combination of individual, social, and systemic changes
Awareness and Education: Increasing awareness about environmental issues, their impact, and potential solutions is crucial

Personal Values and Attitudes: Shifting personal values and attitudes towards environmental sustainability is essential
Recognizing the intrinsic value of nature, developing a sense of environmental responsibility, and cultivating a pro-environmental mindset can motivate individuals to adopt sustainable behaviors

Norms and Social Influence: Social norms and the influence of peers, family, and social networks play a significant role in shaping behavior —- creating a social environment that supports and rewards pro-environmental actions can encourage individuals to adopt sustainable behaviors.

Accessibility and Convenience: Making sustainable options more accessible, affordable, and convenient can greatly facilitate behavior change. For example, providing easy access to public transportation

Incentives and Rewards: Offering incentives, rewards, or recognition for pro-environmental behavior can be effective in motivating individuals

Question 24

Issues with measuring public sphere impact?

Answer 24

Hard to say what impact public sphere action has e.g the direct impact of voting for a green party

Time lag: Environmental impacts often have a significant time lag between cause and effect. For instance, the consequences of public discourse on deforestation may not manifest until years or even decades later

Environmental issues are often characterized by complex, nonlinear cause-and-effect relationships

Public sphere influence may have indirect and long-term effects that are not easily quantifiable

Question 25

What do Nielsen et al (2010) argue about private and public sphere behaviours?

Answer 25

Argue that private and public contrast is blurred due to social contexts and roles
E.g:
consumers
Investors
Participants in organisations
Members in communities
Citizens

Question 26

What do Graziano and Gillingham (2015) show about public behaviours?

Answer 26

Example of how public vs private sphere behaviours can be applied

When solar panels were installed, it raised the probability of other houses in the neighbourhood also installing solar panels

Question 27

Frequent vs infrequent PEB?

Answer 27

Nielson et al (2020):
Psychological research often focuses on easy and frequently performed PEB e.g recycling / switch off lights

But those that have the greatest impact may be infrequent e.g insulating house, buying electric car, deciding where to live

Question 28

What do Gardner and Stern (2008) say about efficiency and curtailment?

Answer 28

They say there is an overlap
E.g buying an energy efficient car (efficiency) and driving less (curtailment)

Question 29

Who is responsible for the most carbon emissions?

Answer 29

Often people ignore who is responsible for emissions
Oxfam (2020) = the emissions of the richest 10% are the same as the rest of the world

Question 30

What are Schwartz universal values?

Answer 30

Often used in social psychology, organises personal values into a wheel

Key areas:
openness to change, self transcendence, conservation, self enhancement

Self transendence = biospheric and altruistic values (more likely to engage in PEB)

Self enhancement = egoistic and hedonic values

Question 31

Do values influence PEB?

Answer 31

Biospheric and altruistic values reliably predict PEB (van der Werff et al., 2013)

Self transcedent values reliably predict PEB (Corner et al., 2014) BUT self-enhancement values, and power tend to be negatively associated with pro-environmental behavior.

Question 32

Do personal and social norms influence PEB?

Answer 32

Persuasive evidence that different types of norms influence level of PEB

• Descriptive norms (e.g see it) for recycling (Barr, 2007)
• Normative appeals for towel reuse (Goldstein et al., 2008)
• Injunctive / personal norms for energy conservation (Gockeritz et al., 2010)
• Interactions between these variables e.g alignment (Keizer and Schultz, 2013)

Question 33

Do peoples identities influence PEB?

Answer 33

Another way to think about psychological factors influencing PEB is identities

E.g. Do I think of myself as someone who is environmentally friendly?

May mediate the relationship between values and behaviour (Van der Werff, 2013)

Question 34

Studies on identities and PEB

Answer 34

van der Werff et al (2013):
- environmental self identity is related to a broad range of PEBs
- mediates the relationship between values and behaviour

Whitmarsh and O’Neill (2010)
- Environmental self identity predicted waste, shopping and conservatioN PEBs
- … but not political action, transport PEB, one off domestic actions

Question 35

Criticisms of studies on PEB?

Answer 35

Assumes that behaviour is a conscious process
Lots of the time PEB = habit etc

Question 36

3 ingredients of habits

Answer 36

1) frequency
2) automacity
3) stable context

Question 37

Do habits influence PEB?

Answer 37

Kurz et al. (2015)
Yes, habits have a strong influence on pro-environmental behavior (PEBs)
Habitual nature of environmentally consequential activities:
1. Sociological perspective - Habit: Intra-individual psychological construct that sustains behaviour patterns in stable settings.
2. Social Practice Tradition - Different ways resource intensive habitual practices become established and maintained.

Question 38

What was Klockner (2013) meta analysis

Answer 38

56 studies
Looked to see whether psychological variables influence PEB
Found that 36% of explained variation in PEB was predicted by psychological variables

Question 39

What psychological variables predict PEB? (Klockner et al - MA)

Answer 39

Self transcendence
Awareness
Subjective norm
Attitudes
Habit
All come together to influence behaviour

Question 40

Theory of planned behaviour

Answer 40

Ajzen (1991)

Attitude (+ve / -ve)
Subjective Norm (will others approbe)
PBC (perceived ability)
——-
Intention
——–
Behaviour

Question 41

Does theory of planned behaviour work for environmental behaviour?

Answer 41

Sheeran (2002): meta analysis
- intentions are predicted by attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, and intentions are reasonably good predictors of behaviours (explain 25%)

Some of these = environmental behaviour e.g carbon offsetting, recycling

Question 42

Does theory of planned behaviour predict PEB continued

Answer 42

Fielding et al. (2008): variables are ok but other variables are more predictive
e.g self identity, group membership

Question 43

Evaluation of theory of planned behaviour

Answer 43

Useful but limited as only uses a small number of fixed variables

Ignores the fact that many environmental behaviours are conducted out of altruistic / moral reasons
Whilst subjective norm in TPE accounts for external motivations (e.g others views) it ignores the altruistic nature

Question 44

What is the norm activation model?

Answer 44

Schwartz (1977)
States that we need awareness of consequences and to feel responsible

These influence feelings to act

This in turn impacts behaviour

Question 45

Can the norm activation model explain PEB?

Answer 45

Vaske et al (2015) =
Measured ascription of responsibility, awareness of consequences and this impact on norm salience and eventually reported ecological behaviour

= all impacted behaviour

Question 46

What is the value-belief-norm model?

Answer 46

Extension of NAM
Proposed by Stern (2000) in an attempt to build a sequential model of behaviour taking into account aforementioned criticisms

Question 47

Evaluation of the Norm Activation Model (Schwartz)

Answer 47

+ Highlights that people are perceptive of others norms

-Doesn’t account for many factors
-Places a lot of emphasis on the individual rather than collective groups & systems
-May oversimplify norms

Question 48

Value belief norm model?

Answer 48

Values (biospheric, altruistic, egoistic) — Beliefs (NEP, awareness, responsibility, obligation) — Behaviours (activism, non activist public sphere, private sphere, organisation behaviours)

Question 49

What model is best at predicting PEB?

Answer 49

• VBN = environmental citizenship, household energy, policy acceptability
• NAM and VBN = low cost
  VBN model may have broader applicability and offer a more comprehensive understanding of pro-environmental behavior b/c it incorporates a wider range of factors, such as personal values, beliefs, and injunctive norms
  -TPB = high cost / difficult PEBs

Question 50

What is the social identity model of collective action?

Answer 50

(Van Zomeren et al., 2008)

Takes into account group identity and emotional response to perceived injustice

moral conviction — Injustice + identity + efficacy (whether you think actions can make a difference) —- collective action

Question 51

Does SIMCA explain PEB?

Answer 51

Bamberg et al (2015) =
supportive evidence for social identity and simca for: student intentions to participate in environmental initiative, local energy groups, attending a talk

Brugger et al (2020) = social identity explained participation by young people in climate strikes

-SIMCA proposes that individuals’ social identities, which include their group memberships, values, and beliefs, play a crucial role in shaping their motivations and willingness to take collective action
-when individuals identify strongly with a particular social group that is concerned about environmental issues (e.g., environmental activists, climate change advocates), they are more likely to engage in pro-environmental collective actions