W12/13: Psychology of Sustainability Flashcards
Define values.
A desirable transsituational goal varying in importance, serving as a guiding principle in one’s life.
People who hold more ________ and ________ values report higher environmentalism.
altruistic; biospheric
True or false: people who hold more altruistic, prosocial, and biospheric values report favouring environmental preservation whereas those who see the environment as a source of resources to be consumed tend to hold self-enhancement values.
True.
True or false: personality affects environmentalism.
True.
Which personality trait affects environmentalism?
Openness to experience.
What is the relationship between guilt and environmental support?
People who feel guilty about humans causing environmental problems show greater pro-environmental support.
True or false: feeling responsible is important in driving actions.
True.
Collective guilt is only high when the effect of global warming is _________. Why?
Minor. When problems are too severe, people become defensive: accepting responsibility is threatening.
What is one way to promote pro-environmental behaviours?
The use of descriptive social norms.
What three factors determine the social norms we follow?
- Perceived similarity: people follow the behaviour of others with similar features.
- Social identity: people follow the behaviour of groups with whom they strongly identify themselves.
- Situational similarity: people follow behaviours of others occurring in environments, situations, or circumstances similar to theirs.
A large number of people believe in climate change but do not engage in the pro-environmental action. What is this concept called?
Attitudes-behaviour gap.
Why does the attitudes-behaviour gap occur?
People do not trust the engagement of others therefore they do not act even if they are not aware of the problems.
What experiment shows this?
Tam & Chan (2012): People with lower trust show lower pro-environmental action even when personally concerned about environmental issues.
What are the differences in environmental actions in individualistic and collectivistic cultures?
Pro-environmental action in individualistic cultures are driven by attitudes and beliefs while in collectivistic cultures, pro-environmental action is driven by pro-environmental social norms.
What experiment supports this?
Eom, Kim, Sherman, & Ishii (2016): More European-Americans chose pro-environmental products when they were marketed with environmental concern but for Japanese, more bought it if it was associated with social norms.
