Egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric environmental concerns: Measurement and structure (original) (raw)
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Pro-environmental conducts are different from pro-environmental opinions, given the fact that there is not a strict relationship between meaning something and acting according to those principles. The aim of this paper is to examine the attitudinal factors which determine the concern for the environment as well as four environmentally friendly behaviors, while trying to account for the heterogeneity of pro-environment attitudes. What we found is there is a set of characteristics which determine the willingness to take proenvironmental actions: women, marriage, higher education, public employment, higher levels of religiosity, having a left-party ideology and belonging to a trade union are positively correlated with environmentally friendly behaviors. Younger individuals tend to take more environmentally friendly actions compared to older respondents. In general, attitudes and behaviors do not differ between groups of countries. In a second stage, we studied the joint effects of expressing concern and taking environmentally friendly attitudes.
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The structure of environmental concern in the United States is examined in this article. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used to test the environmental concern model developed by which indicates that environmental concern consists of three correlated value orientations including (1) social-altruistic value; (2) biospheric value; and (3) egoism or self-interest orientation. Data are derived from the International Social Survey Program of Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR, 6640). Findings confirm the goodness of fit of Stern and associates environmental concern model. Details will be discussed in the article.
In environmental literature it is argued that three different value orientations may be relevant for understanding environmental beliefs and intentions: egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric. Until now, the distinction between altruistic and biospheric value orientations has hardly been supported empirically. In this article, three studies are reported aimed to examine whether an egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric value orientation can indeed be distinguished empirically by using an adapted value instrument. Also, it is examined whether these value orientations are differently and uniquely related to general and specific beliefs and behavioral intention. Results provide support for the reliability and validity of the value instrument. All studies replicated the distinction into three value orientations, with sufficient internal consistency. Furthermore, when altruistic and biospheric goals conflict, they seem to provide a distinct basis for proenvironmental intentions. The value instrument could therefore be useful to better understand relationships between values, beliefs, and intentions related to environmentally significant behavior. of the European Union-funded project ASsess Implementations in the Cities of Tomorrow (ASI; EVG3- CT-2002-80013) for their help in collecting data for Study 2.
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Consumerism and Environmentalism are often viewed as mutually opposing constructs. While the former emphasizes the accumulation and consumption of material resources, the latter advocates resource conservation and long-term sustainability. Highly materialistic individuals are known to be selfish, possessive, and to place a greater value on the accumulation of material possessions. Conversely, environmentally concerned individuals are more often motivated by compassion, social concern, and a broader self-concept. In this study, we show that Consumerism and Environmentalism can both be predicted by the personality trait of Agreeableness. We assessed the personality, consumer goals, and environmental attitudes of undergraduate students at the University of Toronto. While Consumerism was negatively associated with Agreeableness, Environmentalism was positively associated with both Agreeableness and Openness. These findings are discussed in terms of the broader relationship between values and personality traits.
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The idea that concerns for and emotional reactions to climate change may be due to environment-related egoism and altruism was tested. Participants assessed as "high" on egoism were shown to be more concerned for myself-related issues and afraid of the climate change impact on their local environment, indicating a self-benefit goal motive. Participants assessed as "high" on altruism were those more concerned for issues related to others and nature and more afraid and less hopeful for the whole world, indicating a pro-social goal motive in this group of individuals. This indicates that environment-related value orientations of egoism and altruism may prompt concerns and convey feelings differently about the climate change issue. Accordingly, when encouraging sustainable development, policy and pro-environmental actions, we have to bear in mind people's world views grounded in environment-related selfishness vs. unselfishness; indicating different goal-directed motives in climate change decision making.